Land serves as a critical form of capital in tourism destinations, underpinning infrastructure development, homestay establishment, and local food production systems that sustain tourism-linked enterprises. However, multiple challenges emerge around land ownership, entitlement, and tenure security, particularly in rural and ecologically sensitive regions of India. Many potential tourism sites are located on common lands, forest areas, or community-owned spaces where legal ownership is ambiguous or collective. This often leads to conflicts over access, benefit sharing, and control—especially when external investors or government agencies intervene without adequate community consent. For homestays and small-scale tourism infrastructure, unclear land titles and restrictive land-use norms make it difficult for local households, particularly women, to access credit, build facilities, or formalize their enterprises. Women, despite playing key roles across the tourism value chain—from managing homestays and food enterprises to conserving natural and cultural assets—often lack ownership rights or decision-making power over land and resources. This limits their capacity to invest, negotiate, or benefit equitably from tourism revenues. From a governance perspective, the situation calls for an integrated approach that recognizes land not merely as a commodity but as a livelihood, cultural, and ecological asset. Ensuring secure land tenure, gender-sensitive policies, participatory land-use planning, and recognition of community custodianship are essential to make tourism both inclusive and sustainable.

The session would bring practical experiences, prospective and policy regime and build the knowledge and skills and checklist of protocols to follow, while facilitating such community-based tourism models. The key objectives of the session are;

1. To explore the interlinkages between land governance and resilience in community-based tourism destinations, emphasizing equitable access, tenure security, and sustainable land use.

2. To bring together diverse perspectives from government, academia, industry, and practitioners on policy, planning, and implementation frameworks that support inclusive tourism development.

3. To identify challenges and opportunities related to land ownership, entitlement, and commons management that affect infrastructure, livelihoods, and conservation in tourism landscapes.

4. To highlight gender and social inclusion dimensions, especially the role of women and marginalized groups in tourism value chains and land stewardship.

5. To develop actionable insights and policy recommendations for strengthening land governance, community participation, and resilience-building in India’s rural and ecotourism destinations.