Develop Rural Tourism In India
In recent years, there has been an increased realization that the tourism growth potential can be harnessed as a strategy for Rural Development. Rural tourism exhorts tourists to spend quality time in a nuanced by engaging them in different ethnic, indigenous and aesthetic practices in rural areas. The stresses generating from urban life, detachment and distance from urban life and natural environment occasionally provoke the urbanites to escape from their monoculture city life. In such case, rural locations seem to be an ideal place to release stress and peace for certain time.
With 70% population living in rural India, and about 6.5 million units spread across the country, India foresees itself as a strong platform for harnessing tourism. With increasing level of awareness, growing interest in heritage and culture, improved accessibility and environmental consciousness have shifted trends towards rural tourism. Besides culture and heritage, it will also generate employment in the villages since it can leverage skill development in tourism related job roles.
The trend of urbanization has led to falling income levels, lesser job opportunities in the total area to an urbanization syndrome in the rural areas. Rural tourism is one of the few activities which can provide a solution to these problems.
Some emerging and well established start-ups have been playing a significant role in rural tourism. If rural area can be redeveloped and promoted as a tourist spots, villagers will get adequate number of alternative job scope which can possibly reduce the tendency of leaving villages and thus, the socio-economic condition of rural India can also be improved. In India, Rural tourism is still an emerging concept an this sector is quite open to and untouched for marketing. A variety of terms are employed to describe tourism activity in rural areas - Agri tourism, farm tourism, rural tourism, alternative tourism, eco tourism and several others which have a different meaning from one country to another.
Rural tourism is clearly an important sector in terms of revenue and employment, especially for the local community, and it can help to ensure economic stability, however, doing so in a way that benefits the area and the landscape is not straightforward. There are potential problems in increased urbanization and damaging the area if schemes are mismanaged but, when they are managed well, they can generate into a desirable part of tourism while helping the rural region.
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