Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Pilgrimage-tourists to Varanasi (Kashi): critique of the theories, and a search for self-organised patterns in space and time/Rana P.B. Singh and John M. Malville. 2. Tourism and the changing face of Goa/Zelia Breda. 3. SERICSAT: The development of a preliminary instrument of measure service recovery satisfaction in tourism/Babu P. George and G. Anjaneya Swamy. 4. Sustainable eco-tourism: a catalyst for socio-economic development/B.B. Parida and Sampad Kumar Swain. 5. Indian tourism: issues, challenges, and outlook/Aparna Raj, Parul Parihar and Santosh Kr. Upadhyay. 6. Tourism and environmental quality: some principles and experiences in the Indian context/Gopal Poyyamoli and Babu P. George. 7. Tourism destination management/Renu Malra. 8. Tourism curriculum designing for bridging the gap between industry and education needs/Ranbir Singh. 9. Marketing strategies for the promotion of tourism destinations: a case study/K. Mohan. 10. Laws, preservation of monuments, and tourism in India/Pallavi Gupta and Anuradha. 11. The role of tour operators in creating the total holiday experience: some fresh musings/Purva G. Hegde Desai. 12. HRD practices in the Indian tourism sector: an overview/Sampad Kumar Swain. 13. New product development for tourism: a study in Pondicherry Region/Z. Nihmathullah. 14. Tourism business: the E-Horizon/Jagdeesh Pandian.

"Although tourism in India has already grown as a highly complex practice, nothing that happens here gets documented for further reflections. Needless to say, tourism theory here is still at its infancy. Wisdom acquired through years of industrial practice remains at the tacit level, which causes difficulties in it being communicated to others. What we have are theoretical models developed elsewhere, not in anyway connected with the native practice. Also, many of these models are laden by theories that preceded the development of practice and thus are still hypothetical. It is not that theories should always succeed practice but that all good social theories have a cultural logic which can come about only when the theories are contextualized within the elements of native practice. This being the case, there are a lot of lapses and lacunas with respect to Indian tourism that we have to look urgently upon.

A body of situated theoretical and applied knowledge about tourism in India is an urgent need of the time. For the Indian tourism industry to be in control of its destiny, theoretical sophistication as well as recursive reflections of the practice in the light of theory is a foundational prerequisite. The present volume, Advancements in Tourism Theory and Practice: Perspectives from India is to be seen in this backdrop. It aims to compile together strands of thought by tourism theoreticians and practitioners, which serve as a truthful reckoner of the present level of scientific knowledge about Indian tourism." (jacket)