QUEST - a research based journal - January 2015

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"Cultural Tourism : Focus Northeast India" is the theme for the QUEST Volume VIII, No. 2 of January 2015.

In today's age of globalization, tourism is one of the world's largest service industries, contributing in multiple ways, strengthening the inter-connected processes, and yielding sizeable benefits to the economy of a region. Among vibrant facets of the various new emerging arenas of tourism, cultural tourism is gaining more prominence over the years. Cultural tourism with its strong focus on experiencing cultural environments, including landscapes, the material and performing arts, and lifestyles of the indigenous people, their values and traditions, as well as other manifestations of creative inter-cultural exchange processes can attract tourists from across the world. This facet of tourism could synchronize well with the exotic environment of Northeast India.

This region of India is indeed an example of 'paradise unexplored’ encompassing a unique and rich biodiversity, its thick rain-fed forests, major rivers, diverse ethnicity with their varied customs and traditions, food habits, way of life, etc. Inhabited by more than 230 different tribes, each State in the region is endowed with its own distinct features engulfing all aspects of tourist attractions, and can thus offer huge potential for tourism development. The lofty Himalayas, Brahmaputra, Bihu, Loktak lake, the megaliths, the Morungs, the Hornbill festival, Ras Lila, and many more embodiments of other festivals of the region are examples of it's richness worth showcasing and exploring.

This issue of Quest is an effort to bring into focus cultural tourism prospets and challenges in the region, and to explore a meaningful involvement of the Northeast in India's Look East Policy.