Sustainable Development of Rural Tourism through Peoples’ Participation in Manipur

Tourism is an emerging, vibrant and non-pollutant energizing industry which brings structural transformation in a sustainable manner through tourism products. Among all the forms of tourism, rural tourism plays an important role to enhance the potential character of tourism by enriching their tourism products. Rural tourism is a mirror that signifies a cultural heritage in the form of folk-lores, ethnicity, dance, drama etc of the region. Manipur has an immense potential for tourist attractions in the rural areas. The only floating lake of the world Loktak and Keibul Lamjao National Park are the major tourist attractions of rural areas. With salubrious climate and lush green forests Manipur enjoys a special position with various floras and faunas which can become a centre of attraction for tourists. The objective of the present paper is to evaluate and assess the benefits derived by people through their participation in managing the tourism product. The study is based on both the primary as well as secondary sources of data, collected from field survey and tourist offices of Manipur. The findings highlight that the existing problems and prospects for development of rural tourism. Moreover, there is inadequate infrastructure and very less percentage of rural population is engaged in rural tourism which needs urgent attention from planners and policy makers so that a strategy for sustainable development of rural tourism is adopted.