Behavior of Tourists towards Conserving Underwater Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Culture and heritage are one of the pull factors that attracts the tourists towards the destination. Tourists consume culture and heritage products in a different form such as experiencing the cuisines, participating in religious festivals, wearing cultural dresses, purchasing souvenirs which reflect culture and heritage of the destination, by visiting to heritage sites, museums and so on. Visiting land-based culture and heritage sites is quite common among tourists. Under the culture and heritage tag, underwater cultural water is getting more attention of the tourists since it give different, memorable and adventure experience. Underwater cultural heritage is nothing but traces of human existence having cultural, historical and archaeological character which have been partially or totally under water. It is essential to conserve and preserve the underwater cultural heritage since it holds the importance of past culture and tradition of the humans. The main objective of the study is to find out tourists’ awareness and importance of preserving underwater cultural heritage. The area of the study covers Gujarat and Tamil Nadu since each destination holds significant underwater cultural heritage value in India. The recommendations of the study will be useful to promote India has one of the prominent underwater cultural heritage destination