Devarani, LoukhamPriyanka, Pagadala Sai2023-03-272023-03-272020-10https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810195812Declining income from farming and fluctuating market prices of agricultural supplies poses a question to the livelihood security of the rural residents. Rural tourism as an agri-business enterprise has potential to bridge this revenue gap and yield numerous benefits that strengthen culture, antiquity and technological outlook of communities. Community participation is essential for sustainability of any development venture. The local community’s participation is again influenced by their perception among other factors. The study was taken up in Meghalaya state which has a heavy tourist traffic and huge potential for rural tourism development with the objectives: (1) to carry out community stakeholder analysis of rural tourism, (2) to study the attitude of community members towards rural tourism and (3) to assess tourist satisfaction of the experiences offered in the site. Exploratory and descriptive research designs combined with purposive sampling procedure was followed and two existing rural tourism centres in East Khasi Hills Division viz., Mawlynnong (cleanest village of Asia) and Sohliya (Strawberry village) were chosen. Through focus group discussion, key informant technique and observation, 15 categories of community stakeholders were identified, namely homestays, hotels, resorts, restaurants, dhabas, recreation providers, free lancers, village dorbar, farmers, fruits and vegetable vendors, handicraft vendors, tourists, local residents, farmers co-operatives and forest produce collectors. Detailed interviews with the representatives of stakeholder groups revealed that village dorbar performed multiple roles and forms major decision-making body, since it is the nodal organization for governance at village level. All the stakeholders were informed about activities of village through community meetings. Structured interview schedules were developed separately for community residents and tourists. For measuring attitude of the community members, 60 residents (30 from each village), were randomly sampled. It was observed that 80.00 percent respondents in Mawlynnong and 53.34 percent in Sohliya showed favourable attitude towards rural tourism. Variables like social participation of Mawlynnong respondents and education level, size of land holding, annual income, and role in rural tourism of Sohliya respondents had positive association with their attitude towards rural tourism. To assess tourists’ satisfaction, 60 tourists (30 for each village) were interviewed. It was expressed that tourists mostly visited Mawlynnong to explore culture and ethnicity (53.33%) and Sohliya for fun and recreation (70.00%). 19 rural tourism experiences grouped under 6 categories of tourism experiences revealed, sightseeing as the major activity practised by tourists. Cleanliness (𝑥𝑥̅=4.76) in Mawlynnong and climate (𝑥𝑥̅=4.53) in Sohliya were the aspects expressed to have highest satisfaction by the tourists. Effort on mobilization of community residents to undertake homestays and dhabas has to be promoted in Sohliya. Emphasis also needs to be given on creation of exclusive tourism cooperative within villages to coordinate all the vital activities of tourism between stakeholders and ensure decentralised participation by community members.EnglishThesis