johti Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Issues 2687-5543 Sedat ÇELİK Tourism (Other) Turizm (Diğer) Urban based Cultural Tourism: A Creative influence on the modern society by the rural talents of Santiniketan, West Bengal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9380-9682 Rani Rama The University of Burdwan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2711-0037 Abdul Sofique Mir The University of Burdwan 12 24 2019 1 1 1 16 09 17 2019 10 25 2019 Copyright © 2019, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Issues 2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Issues

Urban based culturaltourism, a niche tourism aspect is achieving prosperity today. The paperexplains this concept of how the local engagement of the rural actors iscreating effective integration with the urban societies.This relationship betweencultural tourism and urban societies are fostering the art and crafts inSantiniketan. The paper considers the influence of rural art and craftspromoted by the local handicraftsmen in the area and explain the role of crosscultural linkage on the modern society.Such niche tourism aspect has ability to bring positive influence onrural employment and income generation in Santiniketan, hence developing acreative tourism aspects vice-versa. The paper is mainly basedon primary data collected from 50 respondents through online questionnaire.Study details the influence of rural talents of Santiniketan on the other partof the world. The methods are qualitative and quantitative. The data areanalyzed using likert scale rating from 1 to 5 which are further explainedusing bar graphs. The paper investigates the specific problematic context ofrural cultural tourism of Santiniketan, identifying different stakeholdersparticipating in it and their initiative for development.This shift from‘traditional’ cultural tourism towards creative tourism is a sustainableapproach.

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