Pratidhwani the Echo

A Peer-Reviewed International Journal of
Humanities & Social Science

ISSN: 2278-5264 (Online) 2321-9319 (Print)

Impact Factor: 6.28 (Index Copernicus
International)

Volume-IV,
Issue-IV, April
2016, Page No.
35-45

Published by Dept.
of Bengali, Karimganj College, Karimganj,
Assam, India

Website: http://www.thecho.in

The Hurdles behind the Development of Tourism Industry
in North-East India with Special Reference to Assam

Tribhuwan Kr. Bhartiya

Graduate Science Teacher, Vivekananda Vidyalaya Higher
Secondary School, Digboi, Tinsukia, Assam, India

Abstract

North-East India is endowed with enormous natural
resources that exhilarate the tourism. Despite of having great diversity of
flora, fauna, culture and traditions of tourist attraction, North-East India is
far behind in the field of tourism industry. The reasons of lagging behind of
tourism industry in North-East India in particular Assam are the failure of
government machineries for proper advertising, law and order and development of
socio-political set up for the tourism. Local people of Assam are also not as
interested and motivated for this sector as needed. There is a need to develop
a tourism friendly environment in this area. The tourism friendly environment
can be developed by co-operation between the government and local people of the
area of tourist attraction, the revival of the feelings of “atithi devo bhawah”
(guests are our god) in local people and feelings of support for the tourist.
With this tourism friendly environment more and more tourist will get attracted
and hence provide the opportunity of employment for the local people that will
increase the revenue of the state and living standard of the people.

Key Words: Foreigner tourist,
Foreign exchange earnings, Indian tourist, Local Peoples, Tourism.

Introduction: North-East India is endowed with
great diversity of flora and fauna. Its beauty can’t be estimated easily. In
addition to its natural beauty of flora and fauna it has also great diversity
of culture associated with the peoples of different stock. Because of the
presence of huge diversity of flora, fauna and culture with different
languages, North-East India is also known as MINI INDIA. Its green forest, blue
hills, enchanting rivers as the basis on which an eco-friendly tourism can be
developed. For that a lot of matters needed to be properly addressed, including
development of good approach road to the spots of tourist attraction, creation
of infrastructural facilities like good quality tents with provisions for food
and other logistics, river cruising and water sports, bird watching towers,
etc. These facilities may attract a large number of tourists.

At the present time the rate
of growth in foreign exchange earnings from tourism is exceptionally high. The
most significant feature of the tourism industry is its capacity to generate
large-scale employment opportunities, particularly in remote and underdeveloped
areas. It provide very large opportunity for utilizing natural resources like
landscapes, mountains, chapari (sand beach), maidam, pond, marshy land, rivers
etc. for the economic benefit of the population. It also adds value to a
multitude of human-made attractions such as monuments, palaces, forts and the
unique rural and city environments. A unique feature of the tourism sector is
that facilitates employment to a large number of people in hotels, airline
services, travel agencies, making handcrafts, undertaking cultural activities,
traditional food stall and other tourism-related works.

Objective
of the Study:

The main objectives of the study are as follows:

Ø
To study the scope of tourism in Assam.

Ø  To study
the status of infrastructure for tourism in Assam.

Ø  To study
the status of law and order for tourism in Assam.

Ø  To study
the mentality of local people about tourism.

Ø  To study
the intention of tourist for visiting Assam.

Ø
To study the behavioural approach of people nearby the studied tourist
places in Assam.

Hypothesis:

The null hypothesis is assumed of:

Ø
There is no scope of tourism in Assam.

Ø  There is no
infrastructure for tourism in Assam.

Ø  There is no
law and order in favour of tourism in Assam.

Ø  The local
peoples are against the tourism in Assam.

Ø  There is no
tourist who wants a tour in Assam.

Research
Methodology

A.
Method: Descriptive
survey method is used in the research.

B.
Selection
of Tools: Both primary and secondary data is used in the study. Primary data is
collected by face to face interview with the local people and phone in
interview is conducted with the peoples living outside the Assam i.e.
prospective tourist. Secondary data is collected from the various newspapers,
websites of Ministry of tourism, Government of India and Department of tourism,
Government of Assam.

C.
Justification
for the Selection of Tools: The data for this study could also be
collected by observation method or questionnaire method. In observation method,
it is must to be a tourist at each tourist places, have lived with the local
people of each place and also have lived outside the Assam for study of
interest of prospective tourist to travel this area. All of these are almost
impossible. In questionnaire method it is needed to develop and standardise separate
questionnaire in different languages for local peoples, local tourist, external
tourists and peoples living outside the Assam in our country. This is also
highly tedious and time consuming work.

So investigator have used personal
interview for data collection because it is easy to randomly select local
people, tourist ( local and foreigner) and peoples of outside of Assam and take
interview either directly face to face or via phone. In this type of study,
interview method is highly applicable because peoples like most to talk and
share their experiences.

D.
Administration of the Test: The test was conducted on 80
persons. Out of which 50 persons were randomly selected from the different
tourist places present in Assam and 30 person i.e. prospective tourist
interviewed via phone present in different states like Delhi, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

For the foreign tourist website of
different travel agency present out of North-East region were observed for the
availability of different tour packages for the North-East region because it is
tourist agency that guide and suggest the foreign tourist to make a tour.

E.     Difficulties
Encountered in Collection of Data:

Ø
Some
persons not cooperated properly.

Ø
Persons
also feared of leakage of their personal views so didn’t cooperate freely and
frankly as needed.

Ø
It
was time consuming too and took much time in making persons ready for the
interview.

Ø
The
presence of different language speaking persons like Assamese, Bengali, Hindi,
English etc. created some communication problem during the interview.

Ø
As
felt by the investigator, there was a great manipulation in the answer given by
the interviewee.

Results and
Discussion: Followings are the table and graphs that shows the inflow Foreign and
Indian tourist arrival in India from 1997 to 2014.

Table
No-1

Graph No. 1

Following are the table and
graphs that shows the foreign exchange earning i.e. revenue earning from the
Tourism in India.

Table
No- 2

Graph No. 2

Following are the table and
graphs that shows the Indian and Foreign Tourist arrival in Assam and Revenue
earned from the Tourism in Assam.

Table
No-3

Year wise
Number of Indian and Foreign Tourists inflow in Assam:

Year

Tourist
staying in Tourist Lodges of the Directorate

Tourist
Staying in other accommodation like Hotel etc.

Indian

Foreign

Indian

Foreign

2000-2001

14016

486

961954

6920

2001-2002

15373

456

1675299

4755

2002-2003

18427

520

1222135

5466

2003-2004

19894

508

2010213

6337

2004-2005

20820

804

2165430

8561

2005-2006

24280

755

2562148

7554

2006-2007

20279

649

3459591

13008

2007-2008

24057

960

3465757

12839

2008-2009

26439

674

3672267

13859

2009-2010

25665

664

3869860

14030

2010-2011

25831

594

4101616

15039

2011-2012

26439

696

4381897

15964

2012-2013

22057

711

4522609

16997

Source: Statistical Handbook Assam 2013

Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of
Assam.

Graph
No. 3

Graph
No. 4

Table No-4

Year wise Total
Revenue Earned from Tourist Lodges in Assam:

Year

Total Revenue
Earned (Rupees in lakh)

2000-2001

35.87

2001-2002

38.89

2002-2003

41.03

2003-2004

60.44

2004-2005

69.01

2005-2006

87.11

2006-2007

81.30

2007-2008

94.99

2008-2009

103.92

2009-2010

131.63

2010-2011

143.60

2011-2012

184.49

2012-2013

248.19

Source: Statistical Handbook Assam 2013

Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Govt. of
Assam.

Graph
No. 5

The table and graphs shows
that the inflow of both Indian and Foreign Tourist has increased with time in
India as well as in Assam. But when we compare the growth in tourist inflow of
Assam with that of India then it is very less. Similar condition existed with
the revenue earned from the Tourism in India and Assam.

With the expense of time
Assam is also growing with India but the pace of growth of Assam is lagging
behind that of India. As Assam is an indispensable part of India so its growth
should also be in conformity of India.

Table
No- 5

Source:
State/Union Territories Tourism Departments

From the Table No-5. Assam is also lgging
in attracting the tourist in rank with the other states having coparable same
or less resources of tourist attractions.

Reasons of Lagging of Tourism Industry in Assam: After interviewing the of local people, peoples living
outside the Assam i.e. prospective tourist the investigator found the following
reasons of the lagging of tourism industry in Assam:

1.      Presence of Extremism: Most of the persons use to tour for joy
but not devote their life. Approx 90 percent of peoples avoid to making their
tour to Assam due to the insurgency emerging out of at least 10 banned outfits
in the entire Assam.

2.      Feelings of Communalism: There is a feeling of communalism in some
section of peoples. Despite of taking as source of revenue, local peoples keep
themselves part away from the tourists which make them unwilling to visit the
different places in this region and hence dampened their zeal to visit again.

3.      Lack of Awareness among Local People: There is a lack of
awareness among the local people about the tourism. The absence of tourism
related courses and local level training of peoples for the tourism may be a
great reason for the unawareness of the local people about tourism.

4.
Underdeveloped
Infrastructure: The
good approach road to the spots of tourist attraction, infrastructural
facilities like good quality tents with provisions for food and other
logistics, river cruising and water sports, bird watching towers, etc are
highly underdeveloped in this region.

5.      Lack of Proper Advertising: There is a lack of
proper advertising about the presence of resources of tourist attraction
present in this region.

6.      Lack of Communication Technology and Facilities: Geography
of North-East region is full of hill and hillock and forest reserve. So it is a
little bit of challenge to install hi-fi technology and facilities up to the
mark under the present socio-political situation of Assam too.

7.      Lack of Proper Management for the Development of Tourism of Assam: The
inefficient leadership is also responsible for not able to raise sufficient
funding for the development of tourism.

In addition to these there are
many other reasons that cause the tourist to keep themselves away from this
region to visit.

Conclusions:
At the present time tourism industry is growing very fast in India. It
has a great potential of employment generation. In Assam it is also growing but
in comparison to average growth of India and other states having same resources
of tourist attraction, growing with very less speed. There are many reasons
that act as a factor for the lagging behind of the tourism industry in Assam.
The prevalence of extremism in this region is the most important factor that is
responsible for its backwardness. In addition to extremism, the feelings of
communalism in some local people, underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of proper
advertising etc. are the other important factors that act as hurdle in the
development of tourism industry in Assam. For the proper development of tourism
industry in Assam, it is a must to remove these hurdles.

Limitation
of the Study:

Ø
The study is limited only to some places because it is not possible to
visit each and every place in limited time.

Ø  As the
study is spread out in vast area so there is a great chance of communication
problem because in different area different languages are spoken.

Ø  As the
method applied is interview, so there is a great chance of subjectivity.

Ø
Most of the data used is secondary data so its authenticity depends upon
the authenticity of secondary data.

Scope for
Further Research:

There are following scope for further research:

Ø
A comprehensive study is required for the study of mentality of local
people about tourism industry.

Ø  For
suggesting ways for the propagating awareness among the local people about the
tourism industry.

Ø  To suggest
proper means of advertisement by general public without the help of government.

Ø
To search new areas of tourism attraction in Assam.

Acknowledgements: Author acknowledged his work to
his parents who provided him both financial supports as well as enormous
blessings. He is also thankful to Mr. Subhasis Brahamchari, Assistant teacher,
Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Digboi and Mr. Dheeraj Thapa, Assistant teacher,
Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Digboi who helped him a lot during the collection of
data and clearances of confusions during the investigation.

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