Pilgrimage Tourism for Enhancement of Heritage Conservation Management: Study of Potential, Possibilities in Kurnool, Anantapur Districts of Andhra Pradesh, India

Religious places attract devotees in huge numbers to take up pilgrimages as prescribed by their respective faiths. Like Mecca or Vatican for Muslims and Christians, sacred places of large, mega scale to medium/small centres and temples spread across India are ‘teertha-sthalas’/‘punya-kshetras’ are holy places for ‘teerth yatras’ (pilgrimages) by millions of Hindus. Pilgrims/devotees visit them all through the year normally, and much more in numbers on particular festivals/auspicious days. These kshetras/places provide well-developed visitor amenities, hospitality facilities provided by the government and private operators, contributing to regional/local economies. Historical and natural sites located in proximity of religious centres often stand neglected for lack of patronage and resources. Well-planned tourist circuits and loops, if designed to link popular pilgrimage destinations, can help support heritage conservation management. Kurnool and Anantapur districts of the southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh are case examples, where popular large and medium-scale pilgrim centres are located alongside less-visited historical and natural sites, having high tourism potential. In this paper, the study of Kurnool, Anantapur region of Andhra Pradesh for the potential and possibilities of enhancing heritage conservation management and historic/natural sites tourism by connecting them to popular large/medium pilgrim centres of the region is presented with illustrations, examples along with the results of a brief survey conducted to demonstrate the application of hub and spoke model of tourism development.