Abstract

Rural tourism is a mixture of many tourism like farm or agricultural tourism, cultural tourism and adventure tourism. However a typical type of rural tourism is that showcasing the rural life style including art, culture and heritage at rural locations, which will benefit the local community economically and socially as well as enabling interaction between the tourists and locals for a far more enriching tourism experience.(Sampson,2016).Sustainable living is fundamentally the application of sustainability to lifestyle choice and decision. Sustainability itself is expressed as meeting the present ecological, societal and economical needs without compromise for future generations. The present study defines the factors of technologies in infrastructure and agriculture as the most common examples of the practice of sustainable development in rural tourism. The paper attempts to highlight the present scenario of rural tourism in Manipur while identifying the various problems and issues and strategies to be adopted. With tourism industry fast developing even in India, it is pertinent to note how far tourism is being benefiting the masses particularly the rural community. The various Integrated Rural Development programme (IRDP) for sustainable development seems to be half cooked without uniformity particularly to the rural farmers. This needs some serious study. Manipur is one of the most backward States in the entire North East Region having as many as 36 ethnic groups whose livelihood mainly depends on agricultural activities. Therefore agricultural tourism in its explicit terms of infrastructure in Ukhrul would enable the rural farmers to sustain their economic lifestyle without dismantling the natural resources and habitats.

Keywords: Rural Tourism, Sustainability, Infrastructure, Issues, Manipur