Community Based Tourism as an Effective Tool for Women Empowerment in Rural Areas of South

India – an Analytical Review

*Dr. Ankathi Raghu

**Dr.Ashish Mathur
Abstract

The concept of Community Based Tourism is found to be most beneficial to the third world countries,
especially where sixty percent of the population inhabited in rural areas. Natural resources like forests,
waterfalls, eco-sensitive zones, wild life reserves, are present in rural areas and these resources are very
systematically conserved, converted and designed into tourism products. The Involvement of the local
people in planning and maintenance of these resources in the name of tourism services to the tourists is
relatively new concept, beneficial to community and tourists. Different authors defined Community
based tourism emphasizing on different aspects. An attempt is made in this research paper to know the
details of Community Based Tourism Projects initiated by the Department of Tourism in the states of
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka . Further by applying different research
tools, the role of these projects in women empowerment is measured. The details about their services
offered, roles of the community members, role of NGO,s are also understood. The primary data is
collected through semi-structured questionnaire and the results are presented. The paper is concluded
through suggestions, conclusion and further research implications.

Keywords: Community tourism, Women Empowerment, South India.

*Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism, Faculty of Commerce and Management , IGNTU,

Amarkantak
**Associate Professor, Department of Commerce, Faculty of Commerce and Management , IGNTU,
Amarkantak