www.ijcrt.org © 2018 IJCRT | Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2018 | ISSN: 2320-2882 IJCRT1705240 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 1687 A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLORATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN INDIAN TOURISM INDUSTRY Zahid Iqbal Tantray Research scholar, Department of Tourism and Travel Management School of Business Studies Central University of Jammu Jammu & Kashmir, India Abstract: Tourism is the largest service industry in the World and plays a predominant role in the economic development of the country. Today’s considerable importance is being given to the work force and their development who are involved in tourism practices. Tourism besides being a leisure activity has emerged as a strong economic factor world over. The entire economy of a particular destination is dependent on the work force, So Human resource is as such an inseparable constituent of tourism. There may be various reasons for a tourist to visit a destination of some interest. Tourists might visit the destination because of its natural beauty or resource, historical monument, religious significance, cultural attractions etc. The human resource is the constituent who are involved in all the activities related to a tourist whether it is a tourist guide, service provider, tourism department or tour operator. This paper briefly outlines the different developmental practices of human resource at different levels that act as catalyst for tourism industry in India. Key Words: Human Resource Development, Practices, HRD Levels, HRD Practices. 1. Introduction Tourism had become an important major factor of economic development in today’s world. The impact of tourism can be seen globally as a main contributor of GDP for most of the nations. The world is now treating tourism as an income generating industry. The tourism has not only contributed in terms of GDP but also had positive impact economically, socially like it has created a positive impact on infrastructure development, standard of living. In specific terms of Indian tourism, we indeed had our diverse cultures, cultural sites, natural habitat and many other tourist attractions that have potential to attract large no of tourists from different parts of the world. Indian tourism has incredible location on the map as south is rich of sea tourism north with the covering of snow east covered with forests and west rich of desert tourism. As per (WTTC) (2015) there is gigantic progress in world tourism as it contributes about of worlds GDP with an annual turnover of US$7.6 Trillion (10% of global GDP) and that the world travel and tourism industry supports about 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) for the global economy. Every country wants to attract more and more tourists in order to create image in world and to increase GDP. But it is not just to increase the arrival of tourists there must be resources, facilities, most probably the human resource that will handle the tourists as service providers, guides, transporters etc. this shows a clear intention that there is a direct link between the tourists and the human resource. It is the human resource who finally has to deal with the tourists, provide those services. So it is essential to focus on the manpower who are involved in tourist activities. Human resource is an essential component for the success of any business venture. If a