A Comparative Study of the Positive Cultural Impacts Due to Tourism Development between Urban and Rural Tourist Centres of Kerala

Kerala, the state located at the south-west tip of India is tremendously rich with green forests, mountain ranges, landscapes, backwaters and rivers. The natural beauty of Kerala is genuinely inducing tourism industry. Tourism industry is a major driving force behind the economic development of the state. On an average tourism industry of the state is growing at a rate of 13.5% reached to a total tourism revenue of around 40000 crore by 2016. Kerala is not a producer state, it heavily depend other neighbouring states for its food and vegetable demands. Moreover unemployment is a big threat to the economy of the state and hence, youngsters leave the state to overseas in search of employment. It really made a lot of travel agencies flourishing in the state. Slowly they diverted their attention to tourism sector by sensing its potential. They heavily advertised for their business success and the same is done by authorities in the tourism sector. This heavy campaigning really made the state a world tourist centre within a short span of time. Tourism and culture are strongly interwoven that the behavior and attitude of tourists definitely influence the quality of a tourist center‘s culture. Cultural interaction helps to refine the culture of the both the host and guest at the same time it may ruin the purity of a locality‘s cultural traditions. The study more concentrates on the positive cultural impacts due tourism development. It compares a selected sample of urban and rural tourist centres of the state on the basis of opinion sought from respondents who belong to the host community.

The paper tries to find out answers to the following objectives; 1. To identify the positive cultural impacts in Kerala due to tourism development. 2. To know whether urban or rural centres are better in terms of the identified cultural impacts. 3. To make suggestions for the betterment of positive cultural impacts

DESIGN

The paper uses both primary and secondary data. Primary data is collected through a structured questionnaire from the respondents belonging to both urban and rural tourist centres of the selected sample. The samples are selected by using Simple Random Sampling Method. The questionnaire is administered to 151 respondents belonging to urban centres and 249 of rural centres from whom data is collected. Hence the total sample size is 400. Secondary data is collected from different published sources like Department Publications, Magazines, News Papers, Journals, Reference Books, Library Materials and the internet.

Tourism development naturally invites a lot of benefits to the host community in terms of favourable cultural factors. The important factors identified and used in the study are given below;

Development of tourism will help to adapt positively a new culture in the locality. Due to tourist interaction a cultural advancement is possible leading to a mixed culture in the locality. It leads to the development of language, new food habits, new life style and thereby making the culture hybrid and modern. It boosts education, standard of living and infrastructure facilities.

It helps to preserve the monuments and rich traditions of the locality in a better way. Tourism helps to increase the demand for historical and cultural exhibits of the locality. Moreover it will definitely transmit the local culture among the tourists who are visiting the tourist destinations. the richness of the tourist culture with that of the host culture. It will definitely enrich two cultures in a better way. This cultural interaction will mould a new hybrid culture by absorbing the goodness of the two. Local communities can mix with people from diverse back grounds with different life styles which through ‗demonstration effect‘ may lead to the development of improved life styles and practices from the tourist examples. In addition there may be the flowing of the negative sides of the two cultures on either side.

Tourism development helps to fix the cultural identity of the inhabitants. It makes the host population renowned in the name of their cultural uniqueness.

The primary data collected through the questionnaire from four hundred respondents comprising 151 from urban centres and 249 from rural centres of different parts of Kerala are compared by using descriptive statistics including Arithmetic Mean and Standard Deviation. Finally the significant difference of the variations is tested by using ANOVA. The analysis is done by using SPSS Software.

From the above table it is seen that in all the five variables taken for comparing urban and rural tourist centres latter is leading with higher Mean Scores. In the case of the first variable Acculturation, urban centre is leading with Mean Score 38.2715. While considering Preservation of Tradition, urban centres lead with Average Score 22.5960 and in Stimulation of Cultural Exchange with a Score of 27.1523. With reference to Cultural Exchange 19.0530 is the Average Score of the urban centres which is higher than the rural. While considering the last variable Fixing Cultural Identity also, urban centres are leading with a Score of 22.7682. The outcome of the

better reflected in urban centres than in rural. As a next stage it is normal to test whether these variations in the Average Score is significant or not. For the purpose F-Test is used as a tool of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The following hypotheses are used to test the variation;

It is found from the above table that all the five variables under study are varying significantly between the urban and rural places of tourist centres. The variations are found to be significant at 1% Level of Significance in all cases as p<0.01 (vide last column of the table). Hence, the null hypotheses are rejected and the alternate hypotheses are accepted at 1% level.

3. While considering Stimulation of Cultural Exchange also urban centres register a higher Mean Score of 27.1523. That means cultural exchange values are stimulated effectively in urban tourist centres compared to rural. is the Average Score of the urban centres which is higher than the rural. 5. While considering the last variable Fixing Cultural Identity also, urban centres are leading with a Score of 22.7682. Hence it is concluded that the urban centres are protecting cultural identity positively. 6. The outcome of the analysis proves that the cultural positive impacts are better reflected in urban centres than in rural.

1. The study reveals that rural centres are less benefited in terms of positive cultural gains. Efforts must be taken by the authorities for spreading the cultural benefits in rural centres also. 2. Campaigning and education of tourists are highly essential for preserving the cultural traditions of the host community. In order to achieve this target campaigning teams must be created for making tourists aware of the cultural traditions of the locality.

Kerala which occupies a prominent position in the tourism map of the world is a visitors‘ paradise in all respects. Its culture is rich with festivals, art forms and monuments. Its temples, places of worship and cultural traditions are renowned overseas. Kerala is an urban state with a high level of floating population. It is fundamentally prone to a cultural distraction because of its highly volatile society. It is a reason for reaping a lot of cultural benefits also. A cost-benefit analysis from a larger frame only will be able to find out which among these-either cost or benefit-weigh more.

1. Vijay Kumar Gupta, 1987, Tourism in India, Gyan Publishing House 2. E-book of Ministry of Tourism, 2015 3. A K Bhatia, 2012, Tourism Development, Principles and Practices, Jain Book Agency, New Delhi 4. Manaohar Puri, 2006, Tourism Management, Jain Book Agency, New Delhi 5. http://www.kerenvis.nic.in/isbeid/w_disposal. html, ENVIS Centre Kerala 2009, Kerala 6. Madhu Murdia, 2015, A Sociological Review on Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism, International Journal of Research in Business Management. 7. Colleen Ward & Tracy Berno, 2011, Beyond Social Exchange Theory-Attitudes Towards Tourists, Annals of Tourist Research, Great Britain.

Associate Professor of Commerce, SAS SNDP Yogam College, Konni, Pathanamthitta, Kerala