SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT

ASSIGNMENT

On
Role of the stakeholders in rural areas

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mr. PANKAJ KUMAR sukhvinder singh
RV8901A06

{Session-2009-11}
 Introduction

As many as 75 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. Top tourism
destinations, particularly in developing countries, include national parks,
wilderness areas, mountains, lakes, and cultural sites, most of which are generally
rural. Thus tourism is already an important feature of the rural economy in these
specific sites. It is self-evident that tourism will never come to dominate all rural
areas, particularly in the developing world – there are vast swathes of rural areas
for which tourism is not relevant for the foreseeable future. Rural tourism takes
many different forms and is pursued for different reasons. There are developmental
reasons to promote tourism as a growth pole such as for regeneration following
Agro-industrial collapse or diversification of a remote marginal agricultural area
into adventure tourism or cultural tourism.

Other reasons relate more to development of the tourism product such as

diversifying a country’s image, or alleviating bottlenecks in popular sites. There
are big differences in approach between Eastern Europe and Africa (the two areas
of focus in this paper) due to their economic legacy and context. But in both, rural
tourism is seen as one means to assist rural economies with the transitions they are
facing in order to thrive in a more liberalized economy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore strategies for expanding tourism in poor
rural areas. It draw son an overview of the likely challenges and motivations
involved in promoting rural tourism, and on two new case studies from the Czech
Republic and Uganda, complemented by insights from other rural tourism
initiatives elsewhere. It does not focus on rural tourism at well-established orhigh-
value sites (such as gorilla habitat, famous mountains or reserves), but on bringing
tourism into wider rural areas. Estimates that 75% of the 1.2 billion people living
on less than one dollar a day live and work in rural areas.

Rural tourism focuses on participating in a rural lifestyle. It can be a variant of

ecotourism. Any village can be a tourist attraction, and many villagers are very
hospitable. Agriculture is becoming highly mechanized and therefore requires less
manual labor. This is causing economic pressure on some villages, leading to an
exodus of young people to urban areas.

Rural tourism allows the creation of an alternative source of income in the non-
agricultural sector for rural dwellers. The added income from rural tourism can
contribute to the revival of lost folk art and handicrafts. It is an ideal and natural
method of rural and urban economic exchange.
 Some important figures

Background:-

 JBIC ranked India as the fifth most attractive investment destinations.

 Conde Nast Traveler, one of the world’s most celebrated travel magazines
ranked India amongst the top 10 tourist destinations of the world.
 Tourism is one of the third largest net earners of foreign exchange for the
country and also one of the sectors, which employs the largest number of
manpower.
 India has significant potential for becoming a major global tourist
destination.

In south Asia India has:-

 65.8% of the Regional Tourism Receipts.

 The phenomenal explosion of domestic tourism from 1990 to 2000

accounts for growth rate of 230 %.

 It is estimated that tourism in India could contribute Rs. 8,50,000 crores

to the GDP by 2020 ( approx. 1800 million USD.

Tourism in India:-

 0.8% share of world market

 Tourists (2005)–International 3.97 million–367 million (domestic)
 Employment –Direct -10.7 million –Indirect –24.4 million
 Export earnings ~ US $ 9.6 bn 2006
 Contribution to GDP –Direct 2%–Overall 5.3%

Key issues:-

 Regional linkages, access &connectivity(plain &hills)

 Accomodation infrastructure-High end as well as affordable.
 Basic civic infrastructure, Tourism amenties
 Financial resources, Service delivery & hospitality
 Untapped infrastructure potential
 Institutional &regulatory isssues.
 Scheme of Rural Tourism

Tourism growth potential can be harnessed as a strategy for Rural Development.

The development of a strong platform around the concept of Rural tourism is
definitely useful for a country like India, where almost 74% of the population
resides in its 7 million villages. Across the world the trends of industrialization and
development have had an urban centric approach. Alongside, the stresses of urban
lifestyles have led to a “counter-urbanization” syndrome. This has led to growing
interest in the rural areas. At the same time this trend of urbanization has led to
falling income levels, lesser job opportunities in the rural areas leading to an
urbanization syndrome in the rural areas. Rural Tourism is one of the few activities
which can provide a solution to these problems.

Besides, there are other factors which are shifting the trend towards rural tourism
like increasing levels of awareness, growing interest in heritage and culture and
improved accessibility, and environmental consciousness. In the developed
countries, this has resulted in a new style of tourism of visiting village settings to
experience and live a relaxed and healthy lifestyle. This concept has taken the
shape of a formal kind of Rural Tourism. Under this Scheme, thrust is to promote
village tourism as the primary tourism product to spread tourism and its socio-
economic benefits to rural and its new geographic regions. Key geographic regions
are identified for development and promotion of Rural Tourism. The
implementation is done through a Convergence Committee headed by the District
Collector. Activities like improving the environment, hygiene, infrastructure etc.
are covered for assistance. Apart from providing financial assistance, the focus is
to tap the resources available under different schemes of Department. of Rural
Development, State Governments and other concerned Departments of the
Government of India.
1.  Definition of Rural Tourism: Any form of tourism that showcases
the rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations, thereby
benefiting the local community economically and socially as well
as enabling interaction between the tourists and the locals for a
more enriching tourism experience can be termed as rural
tourism. Rural tourism is essentially an activity which takes place
in the countryside. It is multi-faceted and may entail
farm/agricultural tourism, cultural tourism, nature tourism,
adventure tourism, and eco-tourism. As against conventional
tourism, rural tourism has certain typical characteristics like; it is
experience oriented, the locations are sparsely populated, it is
predominantly in natural environment, it meshes with seasonality
and local events and is based on preservation of culture, heritage
and traditions.
 
2.  Identification of villages: Each State/UT Govt. would be
requested to furnish one proposal for promotion of Rural tourism.
Based on the merits and after a joint inspection by the Deptt. Of
Tourism, and the State/UT Govt. if required ten proposals would
be identified for implementation in the country.
 
3.  Preparation of detailed plan for implementation of the
project: After shortlisting the proposals, the State/UT Govts
would be requested to draw up a detailed plan of action. The
thrust here would be to achieve convergence between the
different schemes of the Govt. of India and the State Govts. It
should be ensured that atleast 50% of the project should be
implemented through achieving convergence of different
schemes. Assistance upto Rs. 3 lakhs would be provided to the
State Govt. for engaging an expert for preparing the project
report.
 
4.  Assistance under the Scheme: A maximum of Rs. 50 lakhs would
be sanctioned under this scheme. The activities listed under the
para 5 could be taken up.
 
5.  Permissible activities: The following works may be taken up
under the Scheme-
 
i)   Improvement of the surroundings of the village. This would
include activities like landscaping, development of parks,
fencing, compound wall etc.
 
ii)  Improvements to roads within the Panchayat limits. This shall
not include any major road which connects the village.
 
iii)  Illumination in the village.
 
iv)  Providing for improvement in solid waste management and
sewerage management.
 
v)  Construction of Wayside Amenities.
 
vi)  Procurement of equipments directly related to tourism, like
Water Sports, Adventure Sports, Eco-friendly modes of
transport for moving within the tourism zone.
 
vii) Refurbishment of the Monuments. (66:33 basis, i.e. CFA of
66%)
 
viii) Signages.
 
ix)  Reception Centres.
 
x)  Other work/activities directly related to tourism.
 
xi)  Tourist Accommodation.
 
6.  Constitution of a Convergence Committee: A Convergence
Committee would be set up under the Collector to oversee the
implementation of the project.
 
7.  Execution of the works: The execution of the work would be
entrusted to any Central Govt./State Govt. agency and the funds
would be released directly to the implementing agency by the
Govt. of India as recommended by the State Govt.
  
8.  Installments of release: On sanction of a work the first
installment of 30% of the sanctioned amount of CFA will be
released. The second installment of 50% would be released on
submission of the UC for the first installment. The balance would
be released on the completion of the work.
 
9.  Following codal formalities: The executing agency shall follow
all codal formalities while awarding contracts and procurement
of equipments and ensure complete transparency in its
transactions.
 
10. Management of assets created: The infrastructure and assets
created will be maintained and managed by the State/UT
Governments or their agencies with no financial commitment to
Govt. of India except those assets created in the protected areas
of ASI.
 
11. Prescription of the Schedule of Rates: While executing the works
the executing agency shall follow the Schedule of rates
prescribed by the CPWD or the State PWD.
 
12.  Submission of the Utilisation Certificates: The executing agency
shall furnish the Utilisation Certificate through the State
Government for release of the second installment. A Completion
Certificate has also to be furnished through the State Govt. before
the release of the final installment.

Importance and Challenges of Tourism in Rural Areas

Rural areas are heterogeneous. The definition of a rural area is problematic in the
literature – most people know a rural area when they see one, but few agree on a
definition in a few sentences. Debates aside, common features of rural space are
(Ashley and Maxwell 2001):-

• Spaces where human settlement and infrastructure occupy only small patches of
the landscape,
Most of which is dominated by fields and pastures, woods and forest, water,
mountain and
Desert.
• Places where most people spend most of their working time on farms
• Abundance and relative cheapness of land
• High transaction costs, associated with long distance and poor infrastructure
• Geographical conditions that increase political transaction costs and magnify the
possibility of
Elite capture or urban bias.

For the purposes of this paper, key features that make rural areas relevant to pro-
poor tourism
Developments are their poverty and lack of economic opportunity, combined with
the agricultural and/or scenic and/or cultural nature of the area, which provides a
tourism asset.
The aim of ‘pro-poor tourism’ is to increase the net benefits to poor people from
tourism, and
Increase their participation in the development of the tourism product. From this
perspective, there’re three main reasons why it is important to develop tourism in
rural areas:-

Increase participation of the poor in the development of tourism

While the percentage of poor people in urban areas is increasing, there are still
more in rural
Areas, both in total numbers as well as a proportion of the population. One key
opportunity of Involving more of the poor in tourism is to develop tourism
enterprises where they live. This is not to say that the poor will necessarily own an
enterprise, or even provide the labor, just because it is located in a rural area, but
location is a first step. Furthermore, two strengths of tourism for increasing
participation are that a) because the customer comes to the product (not there are
more opportunities for expanding the range of transactions. Tourism usually
involves a wide range of enterprises, i.e. the small and informal as well as the well-
established or multi-national (Ashley, Goodwin and Roe 2001). One advantage
specific to rural tourism is that the nature of the product often involves enterprises
that feature local ownership such as bed and breakfasts (B&Bs), home visits and
farm stays.

Bring wider benefits to rural areas

Rural areas generally suffer high levels of poverty, and are also characterized by
lower levels of non-farm economic activity, infrastructural development, and
access to essential services.
They may also suffer from depopulation of the able-bodied4, and lack of political
clout. According to Gannon (1994) and Kieselbach and Long (1990) the
development of tourism can help address several of these problems through,
Although poverty is becoming urbanized, it is estimated that the majority of the
poor of developing countries will be in rural areas Until at least 2020. IFAD
projects that over 60% of the poor will be rural even in 2025.

Depopulation refers to young, skilled workers moving out, to leave a largely

unskilled, elderly population in the rural area. It is a Critical issue in much of
Eastern Europe, and in many sub-Saharan African countries.

• Economic growth, economic diversification and stabilization;

• Employment creation, as primary source of income but most importantly
secondary source of income;
• Reduced out-migration and possibly re-population;
• Maintenance and improvement of public services;
• Infrastructural improvements;
• Revitalizing crafts, customs and cultural identities;
• Increasing opportunities for social contact and exchange;
• Protection and improvement of both the natural and built environment;
• increasing recognition of rural priorities and potential by policy-makers and
economic planners.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SCHEME

Impact Assessment of Rural Tourism projects, particularly on Tourist
arrivals
Most of the sites chosen for rural tourism project have inherent advantages in terms
of historic importance, craft, culture, cuisine, natural beauty etc. It was assessed
that prior to the intervention of Ministry of Tourism, there were five basic issues
hindering the flow of tourist.
• Lack of basic infrastructural facilities for tourists like sanitation, drinking water
facility, wayside amenities
• Lack of accommodation and fooding facilities
• Lack of awareness about the site importance and the need for local guides
• Need to maintain hygienic and good sanitation conditions at the sites
• Xenophobia among the local population
With the intervention of Ministry of Tourism, there has been considerable change.
Though, it is too early to assess quantitatively the increase in the number of tourists
(in most of the cases, the project is not yet completed), but our study shows that the
Xenophobia (fear towards unknown) has been removed from the mind of the local
people. The smaller radii in the tourism circuit have been identified within the
destination for keeping the tourist stay for more than a day. Different goal setting
exercises have been conducted with the host community in due participation and
suggestion of village committee as well as the District Coordination Committee.
The following factors have complemented and are indicative of the fact that Rural
Tourism scheme has been successful in attracting more tourists and elongating
their period of stay in the village.
• Effective documentation of the site by preparation of Brochures, cards, websites
etc depicting the site attractions. This has helped in marketing the sites even among
foreign tourists.
• Equipping the artisans to produce the artistic products with good quality.
Encouraging product diversification and provision of marketing linkages as well as
credit facilities has increased sales of the local art and craft forms from the craft
interpretation centre.
• Documentation of traditional festivals and folk lore has been carried to the
tourists.
• Improvement in the cleanliness and hygiene in the village and environmental
awareness among the people has fostered a conductive atmosphere for tourists at
few places. The drainage system, garbage disposal system etc has changed the
Sanitation and health of the village
• Guide training among the local youths has led to an increasing number of youths
helping the tourists in knowing the places of attraction in the villages.

Impact Assessment of Rural Tourism Projects on System of Maintenance of

Facilities for
Tourists
The maintenance of the facilities created is an aspect which requires a lot of
attention or else the utilities and civil structures created would either be destroyed
due to sheer negligence or would not be able to draw the desired number of
tourists. At Paranpur (Madhya Pradesh), it has been observed that the structures
like Kala Kendras, Craft Museums, Toilets, Parking sheds, rest rooms etc are
maintained by the villagers under the direct supervision of the village panchayat.
This also serves an important objective of the rural tourism i.e. to increase the
livelihood opportunities of the locals. For maintaining these facilities, in many
places (or already in place in many sites) the local youths and women are working
as sweepers, guards, cleaners, facilitators, receptionists etc. Thus not only the
structures gets utilized and maintained, but the people also get gainful employment
resulting in self sustainability.
Impact Assessment of Rural Tourism Projects of Publicity/ Campaign
Launched by the Agency
Implementing the Project for Attracting Tourists
The publicity/campaign launched by various NGOs and implementing partners has
helped in projecting the particular sites as places in the tourism circuit of India.
Earlier, the visitors were either unaware about the site or didn’t stop over in the
village. Due to the publicity and marketing efforts of the Ministry of Tourism,
State departments and the implementing partners, situation is gradually changing.
Various publicity methods have been adopted to promote tourism at the sites like
documentation of the site with the campaign of “Incredible India”; preparation of
brochures, cards depicting the site attractions; developing websites explaining in
details the history, culture, food, craft etc of the site; strategic tie-up with various
tour operators and travel agents to market the site; video shooting; Taking natives
to exposure visits to unknown places, thereby spreading the culture through
word of mouth ; putting up signages in villages so that visitors know exactly what
to see or where to go and conducting workshops in places like Delhi Haat etc
where the true art form of the natives is showcased thereby getting more
recognition to the villages.

Impact Assessment of Rural Tourism Projects on Involvement of Travel

agents/ Tour Operators
to Promote destinations
The travel agents and tour operators are playing an important role in promotion of
the destinations. Most of these places were till recently unknown to many domestic
and foreign tourists. However, most of tour operators who conduct package tours,
(taking the people for sight seeing to different places and arrange for their
accommodation and food too) have started taking the visitors to these sites now.
Though it is still at a nascent stage, with volume of tourists slowly increasing to the
sites, however the efforts are in place to promote these sites. During interaction
with private tour operators, it has been reported that the situation is slowly
changing and visitors are now desirous to see these destinations.

Perception, Experience and Expectation of Tourists about the Facilities

Available
During the interaction with tourists (both domestic and international), overall the
visitors seem to be truly satisfied with their trip to India. While some of them were
in the site for the first time, few others had repeated their tour. The positives of the
rural tourism according to them are enumerated below:
• India being a land of diversity, this type of trips gives a platform to visit the
hinterlands and meet the rural people.
• Local community warmth and the natural beauty of the places is really
enchanting
• Their expectations have been fulfilled, as they felt a part of the family itself
• They really enjoyed the homestays and talking and mixing with people
• Added attraction for them was that the local art and crafts were being made in
front of them and the process being explained to them.
• It was a great experience to witness the way of living, to exchange views with
rural people and being close to nature.
• They enjoyed the hospitality of the people who were very receptive.
 The main stakeholders and their benefits analysis

The community participation in rural tourism has many stakeholders including

rural tourists, rural tourism enterprises, non-rural tourism enterprises, village
collective, the Government and tourism administration, non-governmental
organization, residents, scientific research institutes, media, rural tourism planning
designers, and rural environment and so on. According to the level of participation
and impact, this paper will mainly select the following five categories:

1.The local government

As the representative of public interests and the foremost resource integrator and
allocator, the local government hopes: creating more employment opportunities,
driving the development of related industries, promoting the current new rural
construction, and enhancing the popularity of the destination and so on through the
development of rural tourism.

2. The rural tourism enterprises

There are two categories of rural tourism enterprises. The first one is
tourism enterprises invested and operated by the village collective. Another one is
tourism enterprises operated by external investors. As for-profit organizations,
tourism enterprises firstly aim at profit maximum by supplying products and
services for rural tourists; and hope acquiring the support and participation of the
village collective and residents; and need the preferential policy and infrastructure
construction from the government. On the one hand, tourism enterprises provide
employment opportunities and increase the income of the farmers; on the other
hand, they lack enough concern for the negative effects from tourism development,
such as the environmental pollution, culture missing and immoral, and falling back
to poverty from tourism development and so on.

3. The residents
The residents can be divided into two types: one is participators include operators
of rural tourism, providers of rural tourism products and their raw materials, and
other rural tourism employed persons; another can be called “non-participators”
except for the above participators. For participators, they need the preferential
policy, more training and cultural exchanges opportunities from the government;
hope a higher position income level from tourism enterprises and provide more
products and service for tourists and so on. For “non-participators”, more
employment opportunities and participation access are required. At the same time,
they hope tourism enterprises and tourists not to destroy the local natural,
ecological, cultural environment, and not to affect their normal life.

4. The village collective

As the representative of the overall benefits of rural communities, the village
collective requires the local government and relevant departments to provide a
reasonable planning and enabling policy, to give direct financial and technical
aspects of support and better infrastructure; requests tourism enterprises and
participators to protect tourism resources and ecological environment, to pay
certain taxes. As the direct participation of rural tourism, it is also asked for
providing products and services for tourists.

5 Rural tourists
As the demand side, it is natural for rural tourists to need convenient tourist
facilities and harmonious atmosphere from the community, high quality tourism
product at reasonable prices from enterprises and participators, safe and orderly
travel environment and the establishment of effective information transmission and
tourism complaints mainly from the government, and a friendly attitude from local
residents.

6. The local community

Communities play a significant role in the ecotourism development partnership.
They contribute their knowledge, resources (human and natural) and time to its
development, in addition to committing ownership.
It is important to understand how the community uses their natural resources and
how the use and protection of those resources affects livelihoods and conservation.
This understanding can indicate whether ecotourism can be a viable strategy for
supplementing livelihoods and conserving resources.

7. NGOs
NGOs have a potentially valuable role in supporting and building the capacity of
local communities to participate in ecotourism programme especially defining the
zoning and designing interpretation materials and facilities. They can provide
technical and financial assistance to developing communitybased ecotourism
activities outside of the park which are linked to the park’s ecotourism programme.
NGO involvement may be critical to the sustainability of the ecotourism
programme NGOs can also play a valuable role in monitoring impacts from
tourism on communities and on the ecology of the park and to assist with the
brokering and monitoring of partnership agreements between communities and the
private sector to jointly develop and benefit from CBET.
 Article review

1). http://www.bharathomestay.com/news/travel-india-news/india-tourism-in-2009-year-end-
review.html

1. Statistics of Growth in the current year:

The foreign tourist arrivals (FTA) to India up to the month of November 2009
decreased by 6.3% over the arrivals for the same period in 2008.   The
cumulative arrival figures for the period January to November 2009 reached  
4.54 million. The downward growth is due to global economic slowdown,
terrorist activities, H1N1 influenza pandemic, etc. The important source
countries were US, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Japan.
The number of domestic tourist visits increased from 527 million in 2007 to 563
million in 2008.
The Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) from the tourism sector were Rs.
47918.00 crores during the period January-November 2009, an increase of 5.0%
over the corresponding period in 2008.
2. Infrastructure Development:

Infrastructure development holds the key to India’s sustained growth in the

tourism sector. Therefore, the Ministry of Tourism has been making efforts to
develop quality tourism infrastructure at tourist destinations and circuits. The
Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned 94 projects for an amount of Rs.394.85
crores for infrastructure augmentation including rural tourism projects in the
year 2009-10 (up to November 09).
The Ministry has launched a scheme for development of nationally and
internationally important destinations and circuits through Mega Projects. To
date 29 mega projects have already been identified and of these 21 projects
have been sanctioned. In the current year, the Ministry has sanctioned mega
projects in Madhya Pradesh at Chitrakooot, as Spiritual and Wellness
Destination for an amount of Rs.2401.98 lakhs. The mega projects are a
judicious mix of culture, heritage, spiritual and ecotourism in order to give
tourists a holistic perspective.
Ministry of Tourism is also taking initiatives with other Central Govt.
Ministries, such as Railways, Civil Aviation, Road Transport & Highways,
Food Processing and Urban Development and also the concerned State
 Governments to achieve convergence and synergy with their programmes so
that the impact of investment on these destinations is maximized.
Other initiatives:
* In the workshop on World Class Tourism Infrastructure organized in the
Ministry of Tourism on August 19, 2009 it was decided that the Ministry
will meet the expenditure on the architect’s fee upto 2% of the project cost
which could be included in the cost estimates.
* Ministry of Tourism has issued the guidelines for facilitating construction
of heliport as a component of destination development project in hilly /
remote areas.
* The Ministry of Tourism has decided to consider proposals for grant of
financial assistance upto Rs.5.00 crore for construction of one convention
centre at any well-connected and accessible tourist destination in each
State/UT for promotion of MICE Tourism.
* The Caravan tourism policy announced by the Ministry of Tourism is
aimed to promote and facilitate and incentivise development of:
(i) Caravan Parks in the public sector, private sector and PPP mode
(ii) Caravans in the public sector, private sector and PPP mode
Caravan Tourism can effectively meet the growing demand of
accommodation while ensuring adherence to quality, standards and safety
norms.
* To take up the various issues related to development and promotion of
tourism in the country, Regional Conferences for North and Central States
and Eastern and North Eastern States have already been held. The
conference for South and Western Region is likely to be held shortly.
3. Sustainable Tourism:

The true potential of tourism lies in adopting responsible and sustainable

practices on both the demand and supply sides of the tourism chain, enabling
an effective response to climate change. This is closely interlinked with
inclusive growth through sustainable community participation.
This ‘sustainable’ tourism route has been adopted by the Ministry of
Tourism in the innovative Rural Tourism Project, by strengthening the
disadvantaged but skilled rural artisan communities through support to
capacity building and vernacular infrastructure, while laying emphasis on
the role of women. 29 sites of the projects out of 36 sites are completed and
being marketed. A project website was also upgraded showcasing these
 sites. 15 rural tourism sites have been selected as rural eco- holiday sites for
“Visit India 2009.”

2). http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4434

The idea of rural tourism is, therefore, a bit of a puzzle for many Indians.
They go back to their village every year; why should they pay good money
to go to some other village? Rustic charms hold greater appeal for foreign
tourists. Concerted government and travel industry efforts to sell India
abroad with campaigns such as "Incredible India" began only this decade,
but rural tourism as a product is still evolving.

A national tourism policy was introduced in 2002, with rural tourism

identified as a focus area to generate employment and promote sustainable
livelihoods. "As a part of the National Tourism Policy 2002, the Ministry of
Tourism is developing and promoting rural tourism sites which have core
competency in art, craft, culture, heritage, handloom, etc.," Union Ministry
of Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee said recently in a statement. According
to the 2002 policy, "Special thrust should be imparted to rural tourism and
tourism in small settlements, where sizable assets of our culture and natural
wealth exist."

Just what is rural tourism? The government has taken a broad view. "Any
form of tourism that showcases rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural
locations, thereby benefiting the local community economically and socially
as well as enabling interaction between the tourists and the locals for a more
enriching tourism experience, can be termed as rural tourism," says a
Ministry of Tourism policy paper. "Rural tourism is essentially an activity
which takes place in the countryside. It is multifaceted and may entail
farm/agricultural tourism, cultural tourism, nature tourism, adventure
tourism and ecotourism.

3). http://rtne.wordpress.com/

 When travel is a passion and you are looking for an entrepreneurial activity, the logical
outcome is a Tourism Company focussing on the country. Whilst everyone sold hotel
packages and did ticketing, I realised that concept of Homestays was not adequately
understood or developed.  The potential of Rural Tourism was driven home further,
when I realised, that “Travelling” had an immense “Bragging” value attached to it. When
the X-Generation has “been there, done that”, the next logical thing for them to do
would be to go Rural or go rustic. Thus was born “India Rural Tours”. The business will
be actively promoted through the web viz. www.IndiaRuralTours.comand other social
networking sites like Facebook.
India Rural Tours will focus on 3 Core Activities:
1)      Rural Tours :  Short Trips of 2-3 Day duration, wherein a person can experience
the entire gamut of rural living and lifestyle, accompanied with a little bit of adventure.
2)      Homestay / Farmhouse / Cottage Accommodations : Here the idea is to
popularise and market the concept of Homestays as an alternative to staying in a hotel
or a resort. You imbue local culture, sights, sounds and smells and soak in the whole
experience.
3)      Volunteer Tourism : I customise programs for volunteers who would like to
spend half day to a few months to volunteer in India. Make the visit more satisfying.
Rural Tourism as a concept is extremely well developed in the west. In comparison, it  is
still in its infancy in India. The growth of Homestays has been rather patchy and
uneven. Whilst you will find numerous options in Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal, the
same cannot be said about the rest of the country. It’s a concept with potential and
probably a little ahead of its time.
 Conclusion

Rural Tourism as a concept is extremely well developed in the west. In

comparison, it  is still in its infancy in India. The growth of Homestays has been
rather patchy and uneven. Whilst you will find numerous options in Karnataka,
Kerala, Himachal, the same cannot be said about the rest of the country. It’s a
concept with potential and probably a little ahead of its time.

With increasing popularity of Rural Tourism in India, more and more travel
operators are focusing on this segment. However, due to scarcity of
accommodation options in rural destinations, it is tough to sell these destinations.
Thus, by aggregating all budget accommodation options, we are building a GDS to
enhance the Rural Tourism segment and also provide budget accommodation to
travellers in metro cities.

Although India is one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world, most
visitors to the country tend flock to 4 and 5 star hotels in major spots and metros,
As a consequence, RTNE’s biggest challenge is convincing both domestic and
international tourists that rural hotels and home stays can offer the same standards
of cleanliness and hygiene that they would find in their own home.
 References. 

www.IndiaRuralTours.com

http://www.bharathomestay.com/news/travel-india-news/india-tourism-in-2009-year-end-review.html

www.indiamike.com › ... › States in India › Punjab & Haryana

www.dare.co.in/...rural/digging-gold-in-rural-india.htm -

news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4394178 –

www.iimcal.ac.in/imz/archive/article.asp?code=Cabinet... –