Why rural tourism projects are hit...
Ministry of Tourism carried out an evaluation- cum- impact study report of 107 rural tourism projects through AC Nielson ORG-MARG to understand the success of rural tourism projects. TRAVTALK gives the details of the report highlighting the reasons of the
Hence, the Ministry of Tourism must consider the following three essential factors, on which the success or failure of majority of rural tourism projects depends, that include the vicinity to famous tourist spots, diligent implementation and maintenance of hardware and software components, highlights the report.
The evaluation of the rural tourism projects has brought to fore the exact picture of the scheme and also the projects which are successful in interwining the interest of the rural craftsmen and beneficiaries with that of tourism and has helped in improvement of conditions in the lives of the rural populace.
Out of the total 107 projects, 41 projects have been successful, 33 projects have performed on average and the rest 33 projects have been unsuccessful in attaining the objectives. AC Nielsen ORG-MARG had conducted the evaluation exercise on a scale of 1 to 5 where the projects were rated as failure, not successful, average, moderately successful, or highly successful.
These scores were awarded on the basis of performance of the rural tourism project on the parameters that included status of completion of hardware (infrastructure, construction work, etc.) components; status of completion of software (trainings, workshops, skill development exercise, promotional support, marketing support, etc.) components; quality of hardware component that has been implemented and quality of software component that has been implemented, maintenance of hardware components that have already been implemented, tourist arrivals to the rural tourism destination after the project had been implemented and the improvement in the socio-economic condition of villagers and beneficiaries of the rural tourism project.
As per the key findings of the research, the basic trend observed among the unsuccessful projects is that the implementation of hardware and software components has been incom- plete or not started at all. The most intrinsic reason for most projects being categorised as unsuccessful or average is that the tourist flow to the project areas has been nil or very low. This is the primary factor that should be looked into by the Ministry of Tourism, the evaluation report points out.
An example to prove the case would be the rural tourism project at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. The said project is quite successful due to a constant tourist flow to the project area – this is due to the fact that Puttaparthi is famous for religious purposes and religious tourists vis- iting Puttaparthi visit the rural tourism project too. The tourist flow has in turn helped the locals to improve their socio- economic condition and has also led to the maintenance and sustainability of the rural tourism project there.
Another important trend that has been noticed in unsuccessful projects is that many of those projects are located at areas which are difficult to reach and medium of commuting is also not developed. An example for the case is that all the rural tourism projects in Arunachal Pradesh is moderately successful but the factor that prevents all the projects from being successful is that tourist arrivals is low and the reason behind tourist arrivals being low is that all rural tourist destinations are difficult to reach and also takes at least a day to reach from the major airport in the state.