Rural Tourism in India: Exploring the Travel Blogger’s Perspective

In Agarwal S., Ranjan A., Kumar V. & Chowdhary N. (Eds.) Rurality, Ruralism and Rural Tourism. (pp 51-64) New Delhi. Ane books

14 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2021 Last revised: 7 Jul 2021

See all articles by Rashmiranjan Choudhury

Rashmiranjan Choudhury

North-Eastern Hill University

Saurabh Kumar Dixit

North Eastern Hill University

Date Written: December 19, 2019

Abstract

The important assets in rural tourism are village or countryside, in which India is quite rich and diversified. In a country with 74 percent of the rural population residing over seven million villages, rural tourism is a fast growing concept providing ample opportunities in destination development, promotion as well as in employment. Though Government is supporting in promotion of rural tourism worldwide, still the tourist count is less in that aspect compared to other forms of tourism in India. In the advertisement and promotion aspect, rural tourism in India is lacking somewhere. In the digital era apart from social media marketing and web portal marketing, travel bloggers play a significant role in the promotion of tourism. Bloggers are the self-experienced traveler who briefs in their personal blog which becomes the most reliable source for new travelers.

This paper attempts to address the related issues related to travel blogging and rural tourism in India. In this study 30 travel bloggers including micro-blogging (15 Indian and 15 foreign) contents related to rural tourism are analyzed and presented in a logical manner. Textual and image content analysis was used to analyze the contents into qualitative data. The representation of data was scrutinized to distinguish the blogger's preference. Tourism stakeholders need to give effort to destination branding and improve the image of India as a better and safe tourism destination. Blog marketing can be considered as a productive marketing strategy for rural tourism and other special interest tourism products. Finally, the study suggests the practical implication of the findings and suggests the tourism organizations and Government take some corrective measures in this aspect of blog marketing.

Keywords: Traveller blog, Rural tourism, Travel writings, Rural India, Tourism blog

Suggested Citation

Choudhury, Rashmiranjan and Dixit, Saurabh Kumar, Rural Tourism in India: Exploring the Travel Blogger’s Perspective (December 19, 2019). In Agarwal S., Ranjan A., Kumar V. & Chowdhary N. (Eds.) Rurality, Ruralism and Rural Tourism. (pp 51-64) New Delhi. Ane books , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3769046 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3769046

Rashmiranjan Choudhury (Contact Author)

North-Eastern Hill University ( email )

Meghalaya
India

Saurabh Kumar Dixit

North Eastern Hill University ( email )

Shillong
Meghalaya
India

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