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A study on community perception about the impact of cultural and heritage tourism in Rajasthan

2012; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2229-4104

Nisha Rathore,

Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research

The state of Rajasthan has emerged as a number one destination for international and domestic tourists. Tourism is one of the most flourishing industries in Rajasthan. The numbers of tourists arriving in Rajasthan in 2010 alone were 26822400, out of which 1278523 were foreigners. A total of 5938300 of tourists have already visited Rajasthan by March 2011. Tourism accounts for 8% of Rajasthan's total GDP. Though tourism aids the state to a large extent commercially; it also is an important tool to promote culture in Rajasthan. Thus numerous heritage hotels have been opened in the state to serve the purpose of tourism and to provide glimpses of Indian culture. Rajasthan with its historical cultural and natural heritage, coupled with colourful fair and festivals and friendly people has become a favourite destination for tourists from all over the world. Except a sea-beach and snow-clad mountains, it offers everything to the tourists. Some of the tourism products of Rajasthan have become internationally famous and popular among the tourists such as palace on wheels, heritage hotels, camels safaris, and wild life sanctuaries/national parks. The impact of tourism on society is a complex and varied subject. There are many different kinds of tourists and a great variety of society as well. The paper focuses on the community perceptions of the economic and socio-cultural impacts of culture and heritage tourism in particular and examines the extent to which they coincide with the tourism impact literature. The paper uses Rajasthan as an example to illustrate the multifarious impact of tourism. Data obtained from the questionnaire cum schedule and interviews are the main sources of inputs for analysis. The residents perceived tourism development from both positive as well as negative perspectives. However, the dominant view reaffirms that Rajasthan represents an optimistic side of tourism.