PLANNING FOR INTEGRATED TOURISM IN BIHAR STATE

Abstract

Tourism is one of the leading sectors all around the world. It has been accorded the status of industry. Tourism facilitates business interactions, extends markets and helps diffusion of growth impulses across territories to promote broad based employment and income generation. Adding to the demand for a variety of goods and services, tourism offers prospective to tap activities across a large number of sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, poultry, transport, construction, handicrafts - the sectors, where growth of income has advantageous impact on poverty alleviation. There are various facets of tourism, not only in the form of tourist destinations but also as tourist circuits and tourism products. These, in a combined manner advance the process of comprehensive development. In this study, it has been tried to outline the benefits of tourism by planning for integrated tourism in Bihar state, as the state has great potentialities to seize various tourism activities. It involves the integration of different tourist circuits present in Bihar namely Buddhist circuit, Jain circuit, Sufi circuit, Ramayana circuit and wildlife & Nature circuit. The policy guidelines will be help in further exploiting the tourism potential of the state. The methods and techniques applied included literature reviews, case studies of Odisha and Assam states, statistical and analytical techniques (Regression, Correlation etc.) The approach has potential to appear as a tool for gradual growth of tourism in Bihar state.