RURAL TOURISM IN ASSAM: SATISFACTION OF FOREIGN AND THE DOMESTIC TOURISTS

Abstract

The scope of rural tourism at the national level is really high as 70 per cent of India’s population lives over seven million of its villages. These villages are unique in the sense that they still preserve the traditional heritage not found elsewhere in the world. But India’s share in the world tourism market is less than one per cent. As far as the state of Assam is concerned, the scenario is still discouraging in spite of its huge potentials in the field of rural tourism. Assam is a state of India which is the pioneer in respect of tourism among North Eastern states. The state is endowed with many basic resources, unique natural beauty, different species of wild-life, religious places, historical sites, attractive rural cultural heritage and hospitable rural people for which the state can rightly be designated as paradise state. Thus the state has vast potentials to develop the rural tourism sector for the development of rural people and places. The present article has been designed to examine the Attitudes of the Foreign and the Domestic Tourists towards Rural Tourism.