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(The Gist of Kurukshetra) BRANDING RURAL TOURISM [APRIL-2019]

(The Gist of Kurukshetra) BRANDING RURAL TOURISM

[APRIL-2019]

BRANDING RURAL TOURISM

Introduction

Untapped tribal, tourism food eco, and potentials adventure, many more like are heritage, medical ,being explored in recent times. These untapped tourism resources have been identified as niche areas and cited as new avenues in tourism by the tourism researchers and professionals and such niches gradually succeeded in carving out a place for themselves in the eyes of travellers fulfilling their various lust for travelling.
Thus, the witness of practicing tourism now a days has been shifted from traditional to non- traditional thrusts. By understanding the far reaching significance of tourism, the government and other stakeholders are now focusing on developing rural tourism as a tourism product which is self-sustained and does not need more funds. Many key concepts like sustainable tourism development, alternate tourism, pro-poor tourism, volunteer tourism, responsible tourism, green tourism, community based tourism, special interest tourism etc. are being coined.
The development of Rural Tourism (RT) has now gained popularity and proved to be a sword with double edge i.e. source of employment for local community (Pro-poor Tourism) and preserving its rich culture and heritage (Sustainable Development).
In simple terms, Rural Tourism (RT) can be defined as the touristic activities happening into rural environments to experience rural taste. According to Ray and Das (2016), the tourism that provides a base to experience real rural life including its rich art, culture and heritage, focusing on making local community more economically dependent and an opportunity to interact between host and guest for more enriching travel experience.
There are many aspects of rural tourism like eco- tourism, green tourism, wilderness tourism, volunteer tourism etc. All these types of tourism have a common identity that is rural background and it

Rural Tourism- Products:

Rural Tourism is defined as a form of tourism that generates an opportunity to showcase rural indigenous culture, life and heritage at rural locations, provides employment and other business opportunity for locals along with enabling interaction with the host and guest for more enriching tourism experience. From the above definition it is clear that Rural Tourism concentrates on following three important aspects:
Showcase all the rural background i.e rich culture heritage and rural life.
It is a beginning of pro-poor tourism linking benefits of tourism to the local community in the area of employment and social development.
The tourists get involved in one to one interactions with locals, open the path for many enriching tourism experience and other community based tourism development projects.
Rural Tourism is essentially an activity linked with countryside.

However, there are many other features which are discussed below:

Rural Tourism has many dimensions; it does not attract tourists to the village life only but touches other aspects like cultural tourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism, and ecotourism as well.
The heart of the rural tourism is its architecture and food. The home is homely in true sense and the food which is served is prepared with local available resources. It can be said that rural tourism is
The development of rural tourism emphasizes on three important aspects Normally the whole family rejoices the destination which has potential to woo like must see the place, do something constructive and contribute to the locals in every segment of the participant. Thus, they become the evidence of their increasing their income with the own personal experience by identifying purchases.
Though the locations in rural tourism spots their specific niche. After participation into rural tourism, the travellers are supposed are sparsely populated but it is con ducted to gain more knowledge and information in natural environment. It can also be blended with local fairs and festivals with maximum stress to preserve and conserve which one cannot get through lifeless pages of books.
Practical exposure is the core of this rural local culture, tradition and heritage.

Profiling Rural Tourists:

In India, Rural Tourism as a product is a recent phenomenon. By seeing its potentiality, all efforts are being taken to promote it. But before going with the marketing campaign, it is worthwhile to take a look at the participants, who they are, what their motives are and what makes them visit any rural destination.
India is well known for its culture and culture lies in villages. So anyone who wants to be the part of this tourism must have some information about rural background along with its tourist resources.
It has been seen that majority of the travellers participating in rural tourism are tourism package which gives an opportunity to see the live performance of many activities in the genuine and preserved surroundings. The rural tourist gives more emphasis on conservation and preservation of the resources because they are taught during their stay in rural areas of the sustainability chapters with indigenous knowledge.
Rural tourism also contributes in shaping the youth who are badly addicted to electronic gadgets and the parents are joining rural tourism environment as a campaign along with their children to keep them away from virtual life and spend some time in a surrounding where these gadgets do not exist.

Conclusion:

The Key Result Area may be handicrafts, folk culture, organic farming, eco- parks, herbal parks, yoga and meditation centers, besides the resources should not forget to access the destination because inconvenience in reaching the destination will also attract the shortfall in the tourist arrival.
An assessment of the local environment is also important because that will boost up the link of PPP model. It also ensures the sustainability of Rural Tourism in the concerned village.