Socio-cultural impacts of tourism in third world countries: a case study of Nepal (original) (raw)
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Heliyon
Tourism universally generates benefits and costs to the destination and community. Knowledge on the impacts of tourism on local communities provides important insight in formulating strategies for long term sustainable tourism. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the impacts of tourism before establishing/expanding the industry at a particular destination. In this study, we assessed the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits of tourism in a remote mountainous village that experiences the high pressure of tourism activity. Data were collected for the perceived and anticipated social, economic, and environmental costs/benefits of tourism via in person interview with local residents, hotel owners, and local governmental bodies through unstructured questionnaire survey. The data were analysed using a Leopold matrix. The result revealed that tourism generates noteworthy economic and social benefits to the destination community, while environmental benefits are not obvious. The negative impacts in all the three aspects are minimal and within the threshold limit. Our quantitative assessment revealed that the net impact of tourism in Ghorepani is impressively positive (>40%). The findings of this result thus suggest that tourism is the most lucrative industry of Ghorepani and its further promotion can contribute to the broader enhancement of social and economic status of the village. This finding may have greater implications beyond the case study, and suggests that tourism if extended as the primary industry in other similar mountainous villages can play a pivotal role to enhance the socioeconomic status of the country. Thus, the current findings provide important insights in formulating plans and policies for the management of sustainable tourism across the mountainous destinations.
Socio-cultural Impacts of Contemporary Tourism
The topic of the paper is devoted to analysis of socio-cultural impacts of tourism, as effects on the people of host communities resulting from their direct and indirect associations with tourists. The social and cultural impacts of tourism are the ways in which tourism is contributing to changes in value systems, individual behavior, family structure and relationships, collective lifestyles, safety levels, moral conduct, traditional ceremonies and community organizations. Special attention is devoted to considering complexity of tourists/host interrelationships and discussing the techniques for appraisal of quality and quantity of socio-cultural changes which tourism provokes in local communities.
The quality and frequency of interaction between tourist and resident contributes to tourists' experience, perception of the visited destination, local socio-cultural and environmental status, and acceptance and tolerance of tourists by residents. The key objective of this study is to explore international tourist experiences, interaction with residents, and the social, cultural and environmental effects of tourism in the host community of Sikles, Nepal. The research was conducted among 50 international tourist visiting Sikles during January, 2019. The results shows that village tourism of Sikles is a phenomenon representing nature conservation, adventure, life style, experience and above all benefit to the local people. Foreign tourist visited Sikles for adventure-trekking, relaxes and rest and their expectations were fulfilled during their visit, and there prevails a jovial relationship between tourist and host with a broad spectrum of tourism experiences and impact on local community. However, tourism as a global phenomenon has brought both positive and negative impacts on economic, environmental and social lives which are crucial for leading changes and revitalization of local society, culture and economy of Sikles. Indigenous Gurung culture has become more differentiated and the forces of tourism are strong enough to influence every spheres of local life. But, the effervescent interaction between tourist and host, experiences, perspicacity of jovial relations, the budding social, cultural and environmental challenges has amplified the awareness of both tourist and host for sustainable eco-friendly tourism.
Cultural Perspective of Tourism in Nepal
2011
This Bachelor's thesis is conducted with the main objective of understanding the perspective of culture and its impact on the tourism industry of the host country i.e. Nepal. Furthermore, it will help to gain insight about the possible opportunities and threats in tourism through the responses gathered from various respondents. To research the topic, a web-based survey was conducted among the Nepali youths (mostly students) belonging different places via social networking sites. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been applied in this thesis. To gain initial insight regarding culture and tourism, online material related to different cultural monuments and places of historical importance within and outside the Kathmandu Valley were referred. This provided a basis for quantitative research conducted in the next phase of the research. For the purpose of the study, online questionnaires using Google forms were created and sent via various social networking platforms for responses. Before developing the questionnaires for the online survey, researcher thoroughly reviewed the literature and considered the main objectives. For study purposes, data published by Nepal Tourism Board and various research works from other researchers relating to the same field were also examined. The data thus collected are analyzed using various statistical methods. Analyzing the obtained results then produces the conclusions of the research. Some general and specific recommendations are also listed at the end. Nepal is a country with an abundance of historic, cultural and diverse ethnic traditions, which could attract tourists from every corner of the world. The county holds tremendous opportunities for the development of cultural tourism but it is lagging behind due to the lack of abundant resources. Towards the brighter prospects, these resources are in the process of being established and hopefully will take the cultural tourism of Nepal to a new height.
Socio-cultural impacts of tourism: a hosts perspective
2006
There exists a growing body of literature on economic and environmental impacts in developing countries, yet in the area of the effects of tourism on society and culture, the literature is till limited. Furthermore, the little research which has been undertaken which focuses upon developing countries, often assumes a Western perspective. Therefore the purpose of this study was to examine the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in a destination context and from a host perspective. The study touches on areas of employment, gender and development issues, host / guest relationships, tourism as a form of progression, moral issues and economic factors. Interviews revealed that residents who were dependent upon tourism could differentiate between economic benefits and social costs, which were often interactional, and that awareness of negative consequences does not lead to opposition towards further tourism development. More importantly, local residents demonstrated feelings of pride and hap...
2017
Tourism, apart from being perceived as an economic factor, is a social component and it prevails subjectively and intangibly in the community. With this view, the purpose of this study is to identify and examine the local residents' perceptions towards social impact of tourism in Nepal by conducting face to face field survey of 601 respondents from certain tourist destinations with response rate 91.76%.Data was collected from local respondents depending on five point Likert scale. Factor analysis has been used to analyze the collected data. The factor analysis found that 60.8% total variance of perception of residents has been explained by positive impact of tourism and 60.4% total variance has been explained by negative impact of tourism. Thus, the result indicates positive perception of majority of the respondents towards social impacts of tourism.
Tourism Management, 2006
Tourism development in mountain regions is reported to bring economic growth to host communities. However, the literature reveals that the economic, environmental and cultural impacts of tourism development in these regions vary greatly and that a number of critical factors may explain that variability. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to explore the role of community involvement and number/ type of visitors on tourism impacts in mountain destinations. The study followed a controlled comparison method . Social anthropology and the method of controlled comparison. American Anthropologist, 56(5), 743-763] including field observations and individual and group interviews in two popular mountain destinations in Asia: Annapurna, Nepal, and Northwest Yunnan, China. The findings suggested that level of host involvement in management and number/type of tourists helped explain these destinations' varying degrees of economic leakage, local control, and socio-economic inequity. Moreover, both destinations appeared to cope with their challenges through cooperative community efforts supported by non-governmental agencies. r