A RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON

COMMUNITY BASED EVENT AND ITS

EFFECT CULTURAL TOURISM: A CASE
STUDY OF HORNBILL FESTIVAL OF
NAGALAND
Banaras Hindu University

BY

PARISHMITA DAS
M.A 3RD SEMESTER
ROLL NO. - 14
ENROLLMENT NO. - 406040
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Abstract:

One of the central elements of tourism development is to encourage local communities’

participation as it is the core to the sustainability of tourism industry as well as an important
platform of promotion. While the literature suggests a number of roles local communities could
take in tourism development, little emphasis has so far been given to how local communities
should participate in tourism development. Therefore, this study makes an attempt to highlight
the role of community based event in promoting cultural tourism and its effect on the livelihood of
local community through a case study of the Hornbill festival of Nagaland.

Keyword: community involvement, community based event, cultural tourism, livelihood.

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Introduction:
The recent decade is well witnessed to the new paradigm shift in the perspective of tourism.
Today it has not remained just as a pleasure seeking activity. With the shift in demand for tourism
many new branches have been included with the name of tourism which has Borden the range
to a great extent.

One among this new emerging branch is cultural tourism. Cultural tourism has recently been re-
affirmed by the UNWTO (United Nation World Tourism Organization) as a major element of
international tourism consumption, accounting for over 39% of tourism arrivals. Culture and
tourism have always been inextricably linked. Cultural sights, attractions and events provide an
important motivation for travel, and travel in itself generates culture. But it is only in recent
decades that the link between culture and tourism has been more explicitly identified as a specific
form of consumption: cultural tourism. Growth in cultural tourism again demands a proper
marketing and promotion. Therefore, now a day’s its marketing is conducted by numbers of
emerging platform. A unique scaffold among this is Community Based Event. A community is “a
group of people who share a geographic area and are bound together by common culture, values,
race, or social class. Community participation constitutes a relationship, established by the
members of the community, through their collaboration in achieving common goals and making
the community a better place in which to live. Every culture inevitably consists of events and
festivals that signify the fabric of a community. Community based events and festivals enable the
celebration and preservation of community identity. Events and their management provide a
distinct platform for showcasing the culture and tradition of a region, especially with a tourism
perspective. These customary procedures of man over the due course of time have taken the
form of modern industrial practices.

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the potentiality of cultural tourism in North East
India and the role of community based event and their management as a tool to promote tourism
and its effects on the livelihood of tribal community of North East India with special reference to
Hornbill Festival of Nagaland.

Hornbill Festival:

Nagaland is known as the land of festival as each tribe celebrates its own festival with dedication
and passion. To encourage the inter-tribal connection as well as to promote the cultural heritage
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of Nagaland that the State Government of Nagaland undertaken an ambitious project to exploit
the cultural asset of Nagaland through a weeklong festival to coincide with the celebration of
Nagaland statehood day on 1st December in the year 2000. It is organized by the state tourism
and art & culture department which showcase mélange of cultural displays under the one roof.
The duration of this festival is the 1st and the 1th December every year. This festival is known as
Hornbill Festival. It is named after the bird species of Indian hornbill, the most admired bird by
Naga for its qualities of alertness and grandeur – a trait very similar to Naga warrior tribe. It is
also closely associated with the social and cultural people of the Nagaland which is displayed in
folklore in most of the state’s tribes. It is held at the Naga heritage village, Kishma which is about
12km from Kohima. All the tribes take part in this festival and the aim of this festival is to revive
and protection of the rich Culture of Nagaland, the Switzerland of the east. In the week long
festivity at this festival, one can experience the rich and diverse culture of Nagaland. The festival
units one and all in Nagaland, people from north east India and across the globe. One can visit
the festival to see an amazing mixture of culture, food, dance, songs, craft, sports, paintings,
sculpture of Nagaland the Switzerland of the east.

Statement of Problem:

North-East India is well blessed by Nature and it lies at the center of one of the world’s richest
bio-geographic areas. It is the treasure house of various economic resources. Along with its
natural beauty another main fact is its diversity of culture. It has a rich cultural and ethnic
heritage. North-east India is a home to many indigenous tribal communities belonging to the
Austro-Asiatic linguistic family. Various tribal communities of North-east India have their own
culture, traditions and they loves to follow them strictly Most specifically, all the eight
neighboring states comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, North-East India are well bestowed with unique cultural character
thus each having its unique flavor to serve. As a zone of convergence of diverse ethnic stocks, the
region is undoubtedly a showcase of cultural diversity. Therefore, considering the recent shift in
the perspective and its demand towards cultural tourism, north east India is the perfect place to
serve a diversified cultural taste which can make it as an attractive destination for cultural
tourism.

Unfortunately, even after having such an enormous potentiality the region is still considered as
a less visited place. A major factor responsible for this is the lack of promotion and poor
management. Basically the strategies have been adopted casually without fixing any clear goals
and priorities and in most cases without any authentic action plan. The tourism planners of the
northeastern region of India often forget these basic issues and try to visualize the industry in
such a way that it emerges, performs and brings fruit to the region. The tourism authority of
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North East has failed to realize the recent shift in the demand for tourism across the world and
to shape the service accordingly. The slow pace of progress in tourism in this region is also the
result of a lack of experience in planning, developing and managing along with poor coordination
with the tribal community. Moreover, north eastern region is mostly inhabited by tribes which
are illiterate and backward. The inaccessible terrain, poor infrastructure and communication,
habitual isolation and simple tribal way of life prevent this people from involving or cooperating
with the tourism authority.

Therefore, with special reference to the north east festival of Nagaland, this paper makes an
attempt to show an emerging approach of community based event as an alternative and effective
tool to promote tourism in the region like North east India along with some externality associated
with it like its effect on the livelihood of community.

Literature Review:

According to Scheyvens, 1999, it is imperative to note that involvement and participation of local
communities is central to the sustainable development of tourism the industry, not only because
tourism has a close connection with the local communities, particularly as hosts and guides but
also because “the destinations of tourists are communities and it is in the community that
tourism happens”. Therefore, it is crucial to examine to what extent local communities are able
to participate in tourism planning and the associated decision-making process and to evaluate in
what way tourism might contribute to their well-being. (Mak, 2011).

Local community involvement in tourism development is likely to assist the formulation of more
appropriate decisions and to generate an increase in local motivation (Li 2006). The host
community should have an active say in the kind of tourism appropriate to their lifestyle, culture
and natural resources, and to be free to reject tourism as an economic option if other options
are available (Richards and Hall 2000). This will provide tourism planners with information about
the likely acceptability of any proposed development, what views are held by the local
community and whether or not any fears can be allayed by the development of an appropriate
management strategy (Sonmez and Sirakaya 2002). This will also not only provide happy and
healthier residents but will encourage greater participation in civic matters in general, thus,
creating more active and concerned citizens (Wilson 2003: 1465-1470). Therefore, Local
participation has also been regarded as a positive force for change and authorization to country’s
development.

Community participation also plays a significant role in reviving and sustaining

The status of WHSs, leading to economic development and subsequent improvements in the
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Quality of life of local communities. However, in the context of tourism planning, the
Community participation literature revealed varying levels of community involvement, Ranging
from participation in decision-making to involvement in economic activities. (Jaafar)

Nsizwazikhona and Nduduzo (2017) argue that the principle behind local participation may be
easy to promote, however the practice is far more complex. Generally, it is often assumed that
residents are willing and able to participate equally (Hanafiah et al. 2013). This has been a
continuing debate and issue within tourism development studies. While the tourism literature
suggests a number of roles local communities could take in tourism development, little emphasis
has so far been given as to how the local communities themselves feel about these imposed roles
or what are their views towards participation. This creates a gap between what communities
viewed as their roles in tourism development and as opposed to what the literature suggests.
This is the main reason which excludes communities from the decision making or participating.
Clearly, the ideal would be for communities to decide the form and function of tourism
developments and have full control over any tourism schemes in their location. In most cases,
local residents often lack the experience, resources and hence even interest, needed to establish
successful tourism ventures (Rogersson and Letsie 2013).

Faribor 2011 argued that there has been a relatively slow realization of the importance of
community participation in tourism development. Mitchell and Reid (2001) suggest that local
people and their communities have become the objects of development but not the subject. They
argue that if the local community was not involved from the initial planning stage of tourism it
becomes much harder to bring them on board at a later stage. it is believed that only when local
communities are involved in tourism management their benefits can be ensured and their
traditional lifestyles and values respected (Mitchell and Reid 2001, Sheldon and Abenoja 2001).
Although community participation may seem to contribute positively towards tourism
development, it should be realized that it is only one of many ways to ensure that local people
benefit from tourism (Li 2006).

In the light of the above, it is noteworthy to highlight the importance of community based event
as a tool to play a duel role as a medium of promotion in one hand as well as the community
participation on the other hand. Event management has emerged over the past decade as a
dynamic sector of the tourism and leisure industries (Arcodia & Reid, 2002) and have become
interdependent sectors today. Events, being a part of a community heritage, provides for a
unique tourism product, either on its own or as a part of a package. (Jayswal, 2008) also
highlighted the influence events can have upon attracting tourists through its varied forms as
meetings, incentives, conferences, sports events and the cultural events.
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Furthermore, the consumption of special events appears to be useful in positioning the host
destination in the market place against its competitors and origin destinations. (Walle, 1994, July)
highlights the importance of tourism industry in its own rights, and how it gives clues to relate to
marketing or festivals professionals when planning policies, strategies, and tactics. (Kelly, 2002)
emphasizes upon the fact that small-scale events such as village festivals draw visitors from
surrounding districts and may help give visitors from urban areas a more accurate perception of
rural life. (Harris, 2005) also talks about the issue of community engagement through events and
states how the negative impacts of events can stimulate community engagement towards
positive mechanisms. Further (Liang, Illum, & Cole, 2008) highlights festivals, such as folklore
festivals commonly seen in rural communities, help to preserve and revitalise local cultures and
traditions, provide important leisure activity outlets, build social cohesion and provide
opportunities for families to strengthen relationships with one another, greater understanding
and appreciation of the community traditions and way of life. (Bouchan, Hussain, & Konar, 2015)
also offers due regards to the association of tourism and event management owing to the fact of
the volume of events that can be generated for pulling in international business tourists.

The above mentioned studies undertaken in different parts of India and abroad establish a
rationale for studying the same in case of Nagaland, a state of North -East which is regarded as
one of the major tourist hubs of India. In the present study, Hornbill festival, a well known
Ethnic festival of Nagaland is taken for study with an aim to highlight the importance of the
Community involvement and its opportunities and challenges as well as the role of community
based event in tourism promotion.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

This study has been taken up with the following objectives:

1. To highlight the importance of community based event in promotion of cultural tourism.

2. To identify the effect of community based event on the number of tourist arrivals.
2. To identify the effect of community based event to the livelihood of communities.
3. To identify the challenges in community involvement.

Research Question:

1. What are the problems in community involvement in the field of tourism?

2. To what extent the community based event is effective in removing the problems?
3. What are the Effects of the community based event on the livelihood of local community?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
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This paper will be a case study based on the primary source of data. It will contain the unstructured
interviews or discussion with the community. However secondary data such as review of journals,
academic articles, newspaper, will also be referred for study. A sample size of 50 will be considered for
the study and the method of sampling will be purposive or judgment sampling.

Justification:
1. This study will highlight the role of community based events in promotion of tourism industry.
2. The study will also identify the importance of community involvement in tourism as well as the
livelihood of such local people through the externality associated with it.
3. This study is likely to assist the formulation of more appropriate policy decisions and
proper policy decision considering the role of community as well as realizing the
diversified demand for tourism.

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3.Gangte, M. M. (February 14, 2011). Sustainable Community Development Alternative: Unlocking the
lock :a case study of north east. Journal of Sustainable Development .

4.Jaafar, S. M. (n.d.). Community Participation toward Tourism Development.

5.Kalita, K. (Aug,2017). TOURISM IN RURAL ASSAM AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:. INTERNATIONAL

JOURNAL FOR INNOVATIVE RESEARCH IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD .

6.Mak, K.-l. (2011). Community participation in tourism: a case study from Tai O, Hong Kong.

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