Rural Entrepreneurship Through Tourism in the Himalayan Region With Special Reference to Arunachal Pradesh, India

Introduction

The global economy has been witnessing phenomenal change over a long period. The services sector has been dominating the manufacturing industries. This is simply because of the service sector can easily accommodate the increasing population influx to fulfill their livelihoods. Barring a few high-end services or some components it is mostly low involvement sector. The impact of technological development does not make the sector completely obsolete instantly. The similar trend is replicated in Indian sub-continent. The contribution of services sector tends to 55% to the GDP of the country. Tourism and hospitality sector are indeed one of the most potential contributors for the economy. According to the latest report of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India ranks 7^th position in the world in tourism & travel sector in terms of the contributions of the sector towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the respective nation. The fascinating part of this report is India holds the 5^th largest economy having representation of 3.65% of the world economy. That shows the mammoth contribution of the tourism industry in terms of Rupee value. The report has revealed that in 2016 the sector generated INR14.1 trillion (USD208.9 billion) that represents 9.6% of India’s GDP. Tourism industry has been creating around 10% jobs in the country that offered 40.3 million jobs in 2016 which promoted India’s ranking in 2nd position across the globe in terms of total employment supported by Travel & Tourism trade. India’s Travel & Tourism sector has been one of the fastest growing amongst the G20 countries, growing by 8.5% in 2016 (WTTC, 2017). All these indications highlight the impetus of tourism across the globe. The rural India primarily survives on agriculture where around 50% populations are engaged in this primary sector. The manufacturing sector whether it is small or large, it essentially requires a substantial amount of initial investment, raw materials, technology and strong backups of research & development activities. As a result, creating new startups in manufacturing sector is not always easy particularly in rural & remote areas. The services encounters which are ancillary to the main frame manufacturing work cannot grow in the region since the growth of manufacturing is limited or notional in these far-flung regions. So, tourism and hospitality sector may poise as emerging areas for the rural economic development. With its multiplier effects, tourism can energize the rural economy

This chapter has attempted to explore the opportunities & challenges of tourism entrepreneurship in rural India with special reference to Arunachal Pradesh.