Community Based Tourism Development in Sikkim of India—A Study of Darap and Pastanga Villages

Abstract

The Community Based Tourism Development is based on the engagement of local communities as the central stakeholder in tourism development. However, for most of the times, this concept of the bottom up planning is usually given in the top-down manner because of lack of awareness on the part of communities. The communities participated from planning to execution level are often catalyzed by external forces such as non-governmental organizations' encouragement to the local communities, and there has been little exploration of what communities think of their roles in tourism development. This paper studies this aspect in the Darap and Pastanga villages in Sikkim of India. The focus of the research is to understand the perspective of the local communities at a point when tourism has developed with the intervention of outside agencies that have involved locals in many roles.

Keywords:

• Community-based tourism development
• rural tourism
• tourism in Sikkim

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manjula Chaudhary

Manjula Chaudhary is a Senior Professor at the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, Kurukshetra University. She has been Director of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management under Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for four years between March 2010 and 2014. She is an MBA and Ph.D. in Management. She is a renowned tourism academician having more than 29 years of teaching experience. She has made significant contribution to tourism teaching and research. Her articles have been published in leading journals and magazines. She has authored, co-authored and edited a number of books on Tourism. Around 12 research and consultancy projects have been completed under her for the Government of India and different state governments. She is a member on the advisory board of various government and private bodies; and on the panels of many universities. Her academic interests lie in Indian tourism and tourism marketing. She is an avid reader and loves to read on varied themes.

Rinzing Lama

Rinzing Lama is an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, An organization of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. He is a Masters in Tourism Management Banaras Hindu University and pursuing PhD from Kurukshetra University on Community Based Tourism Development—A Case Study of Sikkim. He has more than 7 years of teaching and 1 year industry experience. He is a certified trainer from World Federation of Tour Guide Association (WFTGA), Vienna, Austria. He is closely associated with Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for various Projects and implementation of Capacity Building for Service Programme scheme like Earn While You Learn, Skill Certification Programme for Service Providers and Guide Training Programmes. His area of interest are Adventure Tourism, Sports Tourism, Community Based Tourism and Sustainable Tourism and has written few research papers published in national and international journals.