Abstract:
Abstract
Riverston; for its natural and cultural significance, tourism industry emerged there and expanded
with more community engagement. Riverston being a Community Based Tourism site, this study
aimed at discovering the perception of Riverston community on tourism development further
focusing on the market opportunities, challenges and strategies for the way forward. Data was
collected from Riverston community who engage in tourism through in-depth Interviews with
semi structured questions, and the sample was selected based on Convenient Sampling
technique. Data was analyzed through content analysis. The findings disclose that challenging
the authentic culture, traditional livelihood shifting towards tourism, lack of awareness and
knowledge of the tourism industry among the community, impact of legal restrictions on the
community to go for tourism, lack of education that has impacted on unplanned tourism industry
are the Socio- cultural categories that have been recognized. Impact of Changing the livelihood
to tourism and new tourism SMEs on good living standards, in place of the income generated
from Chena and cardamom cultivation banned in the area replaced by tourist income and the
employment opportunities generated, rustic Riverston getting developed in terms of
infrastructure with the tourism development and that benefiting the living conditions of the
community are the Economic categories identified. Further, results indicate Forest Conversation
policies have impacted the community's living in high magnitude and the challenge for the
cultivators shifting from agriculture to tourism has been highlighted which has resulted
unplanned tourism procedure. In addition, timely need for a well-planned sustainable tourism
approach and awareness from ground level tourism practitioners was underscored by the data set.
Key Words: Community perception, tourism development, Riverston, challenges, suggestions
