Assessing and Quantif ying the Factors Associated with Livelihood Diversification in Tourism Sites: An Insight from Coastal West Bengal, India

Abstract

Coastal tourism has been reported as an emerging arena of tourism growth worldwide due to availability of 3S (i.e. Sun, Sea and Sand). This study try to evaluate the impact of coastal tourism on the rural livelihoods of Mandarmani and Tajpur area of West Bengal, India thorough face-to-face survey on 23 villages located within the vicinity of tourism sites. Tourism generally makes a positive impact on the local economy though this tourism area experienced disparity in economic sustenance based on its site and situation. Total of 412 questionnaires have been administered to 23 villages at random to household heads. The result shows the more involvement of beach facing villages minimise the poverty with high to very high livelihood diversification. For the assessment of controlling factors to livelihood diversity, multi-linear regression analysis has also been adopted and education, asset index, access and availability of credit has been found as major controlling factors for livelihood diversification in the study area. Such baseline information will be vital for the policy planning to the stakeholders in future.