Sustainable Development of Bihar Tourism: An Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Introduction

Tourism is one of the most important and fastest-growing industries in the world today. Tourism industries are “Smokeless” industries (Prasad, 2004). The tourism industry is one of the most income generator tools for an economy by providing job opportunities and unique business opportunities. Development of Tourism industries means the development of other helping industries like transport; road, and telecommunication, power industries allowing local communities to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can invest in more segments of tourism like travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, restaurants, art and craft, tour operator and many other sectors. It is the fastest growing industry that generates income from tourists‟ spending on goods and services at various stages of travelling; therefore it is very important for the economic well-being of many countries. Earn foreign exchange directly through tourism without exporting national resources. Some countries' economies depend on tourism. It creates a lot of jobs directly and indirectly. It creates jobs for skilled and non-skilled.

The growth rate of the Travel and Tourism sector is 3.9%. Over the past five years, one in five jobs was created by the sector and generating 10.3% of total world GDP (Shah et al., 2021). WTTC forecasted 1.8 billion international tourists in 2030 (Kushwah & Singh, 2018). In the Indian context Travel and tourism contribute 9.2% of total GDP (USD247.3 billion) and generate 8.1% of total employment in 2018. An international tourist spends USD 28.9 billion in 2018 i.e 5.4% of total Indian exports. India set the target of 20 million overseas tourist arrivals by 2020 & 30.5 million foreign tourist arrivals by 2030. Hence, the study attempted to identify the entrepreneurial opportunity that existed in the tourism industry of Bihar province in India.

The history of Bihar is going back 3000 years. Bihar had a significant role in India's early history. For centuries it was the principal seat of imperial powers and the main focus of Indian culture and civilization (Huntington, 1999). The birthplace of Bihar has two religions i.e. Buddhism and Jainism & the birthplace of Guru Govind Singh, the 10^th guru of the Sikh religion (Agrawal et al., 2010). There are many holy places for Hindus and important places for the Gandhian movement (Rahman, 2014). Bihar is rich in spirituality, heritage and culture, rivers, fountains, mountains, hills, abhayaranya, pilgrims, historical sites, and other natural features abound in the state. There are many religious and non-religious tourist places in Bihar; these are the Buddhist circuit, Jain Circuit, Sikh Circuit, Ramayana circuit, Sufi circuit, Shiv Shakti circuit, Gandhi circuit, Eco circuit (Tourism, 2022). Bihar has found a place in the top 10 list of foreign tourist arrivals in the country.

(Source: India Tourism Statistics 2019)