Niche Tourism , i.e. special interest tourism, is a concept growing popular in the Western circuit for last 15 years. It is currently gaining momentum in India too!

Well , India had her share of niche tourists in the field of pilgrimage and religion. ‘Kumbhamela’ (a congregation of devotees on the bank of the Ganges for offering prayer to the Sun and God at the day-break on an auspicious morning ) and an on-foot trip to Mansarovar or Kedarbadri in the Himalyan range are certainly not general tourism though this adjective has not been ever used to define such events . It is, after all, a recent coinage. And…..in India, it has grown beyond religious tourism too !

Niche Tourism is divided into the following broad segments:

• Photographic tourism.
• Religious tourism
• Cultural and heritage tourism.
• Tradition and culture-based tourism.
• Adventure tourism.
• Wild-life tourism.
• Special interest tourism.

  
  

These segments became clearer to me by dint of my exposure to a few persons’ areas of interest I came across in the Internet. I read about Arun whohas set-up Bangalorewalks . Next,I made friends with Iftekar Hassan who has started Calcuttawalks. After I started my work on Iconography, I came across Somen Sengupta, Amit Guha and Darpana Athale. Somen , a senior executive of Samsung India, travels to interiors of West Bengal. And writes about history, monuments and relics of the areas he visit . Amit , who is an engineer from IIT and a resident of London, visits terracotta temples of WB when he finds time during visits to India . He has created his own web-site where he posts such photos . Darpana of Pune, a Designer herself, has started Punewalks.

Recently, I have come across another young man, Suddhabrata Deb , who has a set-up in Calcutta which caters to Niche Tourism …. it is a ‘hand-crafted’ programme by experts of ‘Living Roots’.

I have another suggestion to ‘niche’ tourists. Have you ever thought of visiting a vineyard in India? My wife and I visited one near Pune during the spring of 2008.It was a very memorable experience.

This business  requires Operators with loads of specialized knowledge , apart from the other requirement of tourism trade . The customer's group will likely to be small .It will comprise of people with precise expectations. Satisfaction level for a well conducted tour is high and business prospect improves through words of mouths.

I am personally interested in ‘niche’ tourism …..I am in love with the terracotta temples of Bengal. My friends from hubpages have read my articles on :

• terracotta temples:(http://hubpages.com/hub/ttob,http://hubpages.com/hub/ttob2,http://hubpages.com/hub/ttob_3),
  
• Shantiniketan visit (http://hubpages.com/hub/shantiniketan) and calcuttawalks (http://hubpages.com/hub/Callcuttawalks)'and
  
• my latestarticle :http://hubpages.com/hub/ttob_4.