Community based tourism is travel to local indigenous communities that invites the tourists to experience their customs food, lifestyle and set of beliefs. The responsibility to manage and balance the impacts and benefits of the community-based tourism lies within the host population by strengthening their self-governance, economic alternatives and showcasing traditional ways of life as tourism products. Community based Tourism enables tourists to discover the local culture, food, way of life, landscaping, environment etc. It helps the tourist to relive their life outside the routine environment. Community based Tourism helps to address and develop many issues like poverty reduction, developing local economy, revival and regeneration of art and craft, preservation and conservation of tangible and intangible heritage infrastructure development etc. which in turns helps the host guest both. This paper will deal with study of community involvement, development, impact assessment, benefits received and other aspects of community-based tourism taking Raghurajpur, the heritage tourism village near Puri, Odisha, as reference.

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Keywords: Tourism, Community Based Tourism, Heritage, Indigenous, Impact Assessment.