Avahan: A Journal on Hospitalty and Tourism

Sharad Kumar Kulshreshtha ¹, Ashok Kumar ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Tourism & Hotel Management, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, IN

Abstract

Rural tourism is a pure form of rural settings multiple rural phenomenon, like wide and lush green agricultural land, orchids, people seem to be busy in routine activities, colourful muddy houses, wall paintings, herds of cattle, chaupal is centre and meeting point of rural societies where they share and exchange useful information about all most every day. It is a develop to attract urban settlers to showcasing the real hardship of rural life, leisure, creative, ethnic, cultural, fair&festivals, local craftsmanship with changing seasons of the rural area. During their visit to rural site, the local rural communities act as entrepreneurs to facilitate all basis needs& comforts to tourists in order to generate extra income. These rural sites have been emerged as an important rural tourist destination which is full culture and tradition, arts and crafts, dances and music, events and delicious cuisines etc. The model of rural tourism has design to support local economy to make alternate livelihood for communities and various stake holders and create image through branding rural destination. India has agrarian economy where more than 70 per cent people attached with agricultural and allied activities for their livelihood. In India there is a big prospect for the growth of rural tourism, which will be able to increase the country's inclusive economic growth. Rural tourism creates huge opportunities for youths and women as rural entrepreneurs and generate employment opportunities. In India every one million invested in tourism sector creates 47.5 jobs directly and 85jobs indirectly. The government, belatedly, has realized what the rural India can offer to the world. According to Tenth Five Year Plan ,'tourism as one of the major sources for generating employment and promoting sustainable livelihoods'. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has launched the indigenous rural tourism projects linked to the existing rural tourism scheme of the government. Rural tourism is helpful to develop rural socio-economic and environmental sustainability though capacity building among rural communities, pro-active NGOs, public-private-community based partnership etc. In this way rural tourism is able to boost up Indian inclusive economic growth. This paper aims to study the rural tourism and sustainability, dimensions of rural tourism in Meghalaya, such as rural sustainability, rural sustainable tourism, rural entrepreneurship, role of local governance, capacity building programme by tourism departments, community participation towards rural tourism promotion, with special reference to IBDLP initiative to develop Chandigre Rural Tourism Project of Garo Hills District of Meghalaya.

Keywords

Rural Tourism and Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, IBDLP.

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Ashok Kumar ¹, Girish Nandani ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Tourism, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, IN

Abstract

Tourism is an essential element for cultural understanding and sustainable growth. Millions of people travel across the globe every day exploring, sharing and most of all understand each other's culture. Tourism development is affecting communities around the world. Agricultural land is being bulldozed to make way for hotels. Many destinations of Kumaun region are under assault as number of tourist rises exponentially every year. The result damages the sites, overcrowding, over development, pollution, threats to wildlife, erosion of culture and environment. Responsible Tourism "RT" is a new wave of Travel that protects the natural and cultural heritage of a place and benefits the local communities. In this research three of aspects of RT are analyzed, namely environmental, social and economic responsibility.

The present study is descriptive study. The survey method was employed for collecting data. The analysis of data reveals that there is a lot of scope to educate tourist regarding responsible tourism behaviour whenever they visit the destinations.

Keywords

Responsible Tourism, Tourist, Perception, Social Responsibility, Economic Responsibility, Environmental Responsibility, Host Community.

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Ashok Kumar ¹, Ashish Tamta ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Tourism Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, IN
2 University Grants Commission, Department of Tourism Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, IN

Abstract

Tourism in Nainital is an age old phenomenon that has grown from a hand full British elites using Nainital for its sabulous climate which reminded them of their home. They used Nainital as a summer retreat and established summer capital to enjoy the weather and climate. Slowly the place started to establish its name as a tourist destination. People use to visit the destination for months hiring rooms with attached kitchens, the entire summer months they use to stay and enjoy the proximity of nature.

During the British period, cement construction was not permitted on the Mall Road and vehicles were not allowed to ply beyond the bus station but nowadays, especially the summer season, the Mall road is clogged with cars, tourist buses, and trucks (Shah, 1999) and with time tourist visitation increased and leisure tourism was converted to mass tourist movement, that imposed pressure for infrastructural development in the area that itself was very fragile with limited space for expansion and development. Irrespective of these facts mass tourism was promoted and to reap benefits from tourism, large scale infrastructure was developed. With the increased number of tourist many folds imposed tremendous pressure on environment, resources and the supply therein, as these are being shared by host and guest altogether.

With industrialisation and financial uplift of all sectors of the society in the country, led to vehicular ownership and good amount of disposable income for tourism purposes, in the last two decades vehicle ownership has increased manifolds. Use of personal vehicle for leisure related travel has become a status symbol especially in industrialised and developing countries. Most tourism emissions are a result of transport with aviation accounting for 40 percent of tourism contribution to CO2, followed by cars (32 percent) and accommodation (21 percent)(Gössling, 2012).

In the entire process of tourist movement to Nainital, apart from the business community the host community has to face numerous challenges during peak season and also share the resources which is depleting day by day with increase in tourist traffic. The present paper is an effort to understand the perception of host community on increased tourist traffic that imposes issues relating to environment, tourism and leisure transport.

Keywords

Nainital, Environment, Impact, Host Community, Perception, Leisure Transport, Emissions.

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