IJMRR/ Dec 2012/ Volume 2/Issue 12/Article No-7/2069-2076 ISSN: 2249-7196 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND REVIEW RURAL TOURISM: AN IMPORTANT SECTOR UNDERPINNING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL ASSAM Anjan Kumar Bordoloi*1, Archana Kalita 2 1Asst. Professor, Department of Management, Margherita College, Margherita,Tinsukia, Assam, India. 2Research Scholar (Ph.D), Department of Commerce, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh Assam, India. ABSTRACT Tourism is considered as the fastest growing industry in Assam and there are lots of tourist resources available in this State which may attract the tourists from different parts of the country and abroad. Assam is the central state in the North-East Region of India and serves as the gateway to the rest of the Seven Sister States. A Rural tourist destination can be defined as a wider area dominated by the natural or farmed/ forested environments where specific natural, economic and socio-cultural features, such as tradition, local cooperation, and trust are harmoniously embedded and as such create a unique tourist product. The attractiveness of rural areas for tourism and recreation can first be associated with the image of rurality. Rurality is closely related to the traditional, cultural, natural, pure, and simple lifestyle. Thus nostalgia of the origins, the need for recuperation of the lost link with nature and the basics of life in an increasingly complex, highly organized, anonymous, congested, stressful urban and inhumane surrounding constitutes the principal attention of rural area. Thus the importance of rural tourism as a part of the overall tourism market depends on each country’s tourism resources, infrastructure image, market access and the presence of other types of tourism products. The paper intends to highlight the importance of rural tourism in the purview of Assam rural economy setup. Keywords: Rural tourism, Assam. I. PRELUDE Tourism is termed rural when the rural culture is a key component of the product on offer. Depending on the primary activity component of this product, the terms used are agri- tourism, green tourism, nautical, hunting, adventure, historical/ cultural tourism and so on. Tourism activities revolving around large holiday home developments, big hotels, golf courses are difficult to integrate into the concept of rural tourism. The distinguishing feature of tourism products in rural tourism is the wish to give visitors personalized contact, a taste of the physical and human environment of the villages and, as far as possible, allows them to participate in the activities, traditions, cultures and lifestyles of local people. After independence government of India was focusing on development of the key areas like agriculture, industry, infrastructure, etc in rural India. Tourism was never seen as a potential *Corresponding Author www.ijmrr.com 2069 IJMRR/ Dec 2012/ Volume 2/Issue 12/Article No-7/2069-2076 ISSN: 2249-7196 business, it was growing at its own space. Although tourism has started receiving some attention from last one decade, but rural tourism is still not gaining any priority. Tourism can be considered as second highest revenue-generating industry next to oil industry globally. It is necessary to differentiate between different types of tourist and their purpose of visit. Therefore, we need to understand about the types of services which are required to attract and retain the customers. There is a large potential market for rural tourism, especially for foreign tourists which have not yet developed because government has not taken up any systematic approach to attract foreign tourists. Now-days, tourism is no more a word that can be made to indicate pleasure and relaxation only at the cost of one’s empty pockets. Many development and promotional tools have been designed newly to profitably deal with tourists, tourist destinations, tourism products and resources and tourism promotion activities. Rural tourism will bring people of different cultures, faiths, languages and life-styles close to one another and it will provide a broader outlook of life. It will not only generate employment for the people but it can also develop social, cultural and educational values. According to World Travel and Tourism Council , India will be a tourism hotspot from 2009- 2018, having the highest 10-year growth potential. The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2007 ranked tourism in India 6th in terms of price competitiveness and 39th in terms of safety and security. Despite short- and medium-term setbacks, such as shortage of hotel rooms, tourism revenues are expected to surge by 42 percent from 2007 to 2017. India's 5,000 years of history, its length, breadth and the variety of geographic features make its tourism basket large and varied. It presents heritage and cultural tourism along with medical, business and sports tourism. India has a growing medical tourism sector. II. OBJECTIVES OF STUDYING RURAL TOURISM Although there is phenomenal growth in Indian Tourism, but rural tourism was never given any priority. The concept of rural tourism has a noble cause; it is another sustainable tourism that exploits resources in rural regions, causes little or no harmful impact and generates increasing benefits to rural areas in terms of rural productivity, employment, improved distribution of wealth, conservation of the rural environment and culture, local people’s involvement, and a suitable way of adapting traditional beliefs and values to modern times. Not many studies have been done in India to assess the potentiality of rural tourism. The following objectives are taken into consideration to develop this paper. (1) To understand the potential of rural tourism. (2) To find out the impact of rural tourism to our rural as well as urban society. (3) To identify the challenges and opportunities in rural tourism. (4) To identify the essential elements for development of rural tourism. III. METHODOLOGY The paper is based on secondary data available in the context of rural tourism development and sources of procurement includes Journals, Magazines, Periodicals, Books, Published Research Articles, Unpublished Works and website sources. Copyright © 2012 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 2070 IJMRR/ Dec 2012/ Volume 2/Issue 12/Article No-7/2069-2076 ISSN: 2249-7196 IV. RURAL TOURISM Rural tourism is defined as the subject of many debates in the literature without arriving at any firm consensus (Pearce 1989; Bramwell 1994; Seaton et al. 1994) . First of all, rural areas where rural tourism occurs are difficult to define since criteria used by different nations vary enormously; secondly, not all tourism which takes place in rural areas is strictly “rural” – it can be urban in form, and merely be located in a rural area; thirdly, different forms of rural tourism have developed in different regions and hence it is hard to find characteristics that are common to all of the countries; fourthly rural areas are in a complex process of change due to the impact of global markets, communications and telecommunications that have changed market conditions and orientations for traditional products. Besides, though some rural areas have experienced depopulation there are many of them that are experiencing an inflow of people to retire or to develop new non-traditional businesses. V. RURAL TOURISM AND ASSAM Tourism is the fastest growing industry in Assam. There are lots of tourist resources available in the State which may attract the tourists from different parts of the country and abroad. Assam is the central state in the North-East Region of India and serves as the gateway to the rest of the Seven Sister States. Tourism activities revolving around large holiday home developments, big hotels, golf courses are difficult to integrate into the concept of rural tourism. The distinguishing feature of tourism products in rural tourism is the wish to give visitors personalized contact, a taste of the physical and human environment of the villages and, as far as possible, allows them to participate in the activities, traditions and lifestyles of local people. There is also a strong cultural and educational element in this form of leisure tourism. Hence a rural tourist destination could be defined as a wider area dominated by the natural or farmed/ forested environments where specific natural, economic and socio-cultural features, such as tradition, local cooperation, and trust are harmoniously embedded and as such create a unique tourist product. The attractiveness of rural areas for tourism and recreation can first be associated with the image of rurality. Here rurality is closely related to the traditional, cultural, natural, pure, and simple lifestyle. Thus nostalgia of the origins, the need for recuperation of the lost link with nature and the basics of life in an increasingly complex, highly organized, anonymous, congested, stressful urban and inhumane surrounding constitutes the principal attention of rural area (Kastenholz, Davis, Paul 1999). The importance of rural tourism as a part of the overall tourism market depends on each country’s tourism resources, infrastructure image, market access and the presence of other types of tourism products. Even if rural tourism is very small in relation to the overall tourism market of many countries its importance to the development of specific rural areas may be critical. Thus, the multiplier effect is often more impacting in rural areas where the entire rural lifestyle is looked for a main attraction. Rural tourism