COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MANIPUR

Community based tourism is tourism in which local residents (often rural, poor and economically marginalized) invite tourists to visit their communities with the provision of overnight accommodation. The residents earn income as land managers, entrepreneurs, service and produce providers, and employees. At least part of the tourist income is set aside for projects which provide benefits to the community as a whole. When we come to ‘Community participation’ it refers to a form of voluntary action in which individuals take up the responsibilities of citizenship. Community participation is an educational and empowering process. People cooperate with those able to assist them, and identify problems and needs for mutual concerns. The term ‘community’ or ‘host community’, in the context of tourism, refers to a group of people living in the same locality, or tourism destination. In the Northeast Region (NER) of India in general and Manipur in particular the concept of community participation in tourism development is not widely prevalent and is in infancy stage. In this backdrop the paper adopt a hypothesis that Community based tourism is a factor for maximizing the socio-economic benefit of the community and growth of tourism industry in the state. It also looks into the aspect of how different communities in Manipur can participate in tourism development. Key words: Community participation, Community based tourism, host community