Mining Tourism Potential Assessment of Raniganj Coalfield, India

Abstract

This study focuses on the potential of mining tourism in the oldest coalfield of India. To conduct the research, five mines from Raniganj coalfield have been selected based on their comparatively high degree of preservation, good connectivity, and quality to show the interconnectedness of mining tourism with other forms of tourism such as geotourism and heritage tourism. The tourism attractions for each mining site are classified following Jolliffe and Conlin (2011), whereas, the assessment criteria are prepared after Kubalíková (2017). The guidelines of the Ministry of Tourism of India are followed for tourism circuit demarcation. The outcome highlights that although risk factors cannot be neglected in some cases, each site represents diverse mining tourism attractions along with having good connectivity and accessibility. However, the result shows only around 50% feasibility for mining tourism, mainly because of the non-availability of proper tourism infrastructure. Road network analysis is done and two possible tourism routes are suggested. This study raises basic and initial issues indicating the mining tourism potential of Raniganj coalfield. Initiatives by the stakeholders in terms of an awareness campaign and generation of basic tourism facilities are necessary which may lead to the successful development of mining tourism in these sites in the future.