Community development via tourism: a case study on Sunderbans tiger reserve, India

ABSTRACT

Tourism is a booming industry all over the globe. It is known to uplift rural population. As protected areas are located in rural areas, the local communities have been experiencing an increasing flow of tourists over the years. This has made tourism a suitable career choice for local's livelihood. India is rich in flora and fauna which are spread all over the country. Among various sites, Sunderbans Tiger Reserve is a location with a global significance which is a huge attraction point for tourists from all over the globe. The reserve is densely packed with mangrove forest where there is a tiger habitat;making is one of a kind destination. This paper studies the impact of tourism on the local community of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve. The data was collected through a non-probability convenient sampling method with the help of a structured questionnaire followed by an interview from 100 local residents living in the surrounding land of the reserve in November 2020. The Cronbach's Alpha test was applied to check the reliability and the result suggesting that the data is reliable. Descriptive statistics are applied to evaluate the impact of tourism on the local community and the Kruskal - Wallis H-test is applied to calculate the difference between the impact and gender perception. The findings of the study show that the local community is experiencing both a positive and negative impact of tourism in the study site, hence making the impact neutral in nature but there is no statistically significant difference between gender and the impact of tourism. The covid-19 pandemic has also made a significant impact on the tourism industry all over the world, hence highlighting its importance for local community development in rural areas.