Rural tourism in India is increasingly seen as a way for elimination of poverty and inequalities. The country's National Tourism Policy of 2002 by the Ministry of Tourism (MOT) announced its plans of spreading tourism development to rural areas: 'village tourism will be promoted as the primary tourism product of India; to spread tourism and its socio-economic benefits to rural areas'. However, the question remains - can tourism transform to something positive? Or is it the case that when communities adopt tourism they lose more than they gain? To probe this question, we analysed two community based tourism initiatives in this paper - The Endogenous Tourism Project and Mountain Shepherds Initiative. The initiatives have common threads - to see tourism as a means to achieving development goals. However, each is backed by a different institution and following different approaches to implementation. Publisher: Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS) Contact: [email protected], +91.80.25457607 Visit: www.equitabletourism.org, www.equitabletourism.org/stage/readfull.php?AID=420