Community-Managed Nature Tourism and Tourism Growth: A Case Study of Odisha, India

Abstract

The present study has investigated the role of the Community-Managed Nature Tourism (CMNT) project in fuelling tourism growth by contributing to tourist inflow and revenue generation in the state of Odisha, India. In 2016, the Government of Odisha started the project of CMNT camps with the inclusion of forest-dependent communities. The current research depends on secondary data sources, which have been collected from the state government websites. To analyse the data, the Trend Analysis has been calculated with a ‘Moving Average’ plot to smooth out fluctuations and highlight the trend. Then data comparison with ‘Comparative Visualisation’ has been used to visually compare the growth rates of the number of tourists and revenue generation between the CMNT project and the overall tourism industry in the state. The key findings are that despite the negative annual growth rate of tourist visits and revenue generation by the state’s tourism during the study period, the CMNT projects have maintained a positive annual growth rate. The findings of the present study are expected to contribute both theoretical and practical knowledge of the research academia, industry professionals, and the developmental planning of states in a country, particularly in Odisha.