Promoting rural (village) tourism through micro venture capital financing in the face of financial crises and global warming: A case study of Goa

Abstract

The written history of mankind reveals that from time immemorial there existed the quest for traveling and over the years different types / forms of traveling came in to being (viz.; Religious / Health / Medical / Education / Business / Leisure / Adventure / Sports / Village / Rural / Sex / Dark / etc); of which Village / Rural Tourism is gaining prominence now a days in most of the countries, including India, as means of alleviating poverty and preservation of environment, technically named as Pro-Poor Tourism. This being the case, Goa which is synonymous with sun, sand, surf, but this projection and encashment of the same has reached saturation and today Goa no longer requires promotion in tourism area, in fact it has worn out its charm, and has taken its toll in terms of environment, social-cultural trouncing; hence it is about time not to struggle in retaining this image, and checking the decline, but on the contrary, take the road less traveled; viz.; rural/village tourism, as the future strategy, which will act as the agent of change for transforming the tourism industry in a region. This paper tries to find out whether by using the transformational capabilities of venture capital in the form of micro venture capital financing to the needs of entrepreneurs for developing rural/village tourism in a geographical region which generates more purchasing power at the bottom of the pyramid. Proper balanced mixture of micro venture capital and rural/village tourism leads to sustainable development of the rural community. Thus development of rural tourism can be considered as an innovative way of providing livelihood to underdeveloped rural areas whereby poverty eradication becomes a reality in the near future. A survey among tourists and rural entrepreneurs is being carried out for understanding the impact of global warming (GW) and financial crisis (FC) and also present status of tourism industry in terms of developing the concept of rural/village tourism as an alternate for rejuvenating the present stagnation stage of tourism industry in Goa. The paper concludes that developing rural/village tourism by capatalising on the novel concept of micro venture capital financing (because both has the inherent multiplier effect on the economy) as the best transformational strategy for the development of profitable and sustainable tourism industry in the region in the face of GW and FC.