Community inclusion in tourism: A sustainable tourism business approach of small-sized enterprises in Nepal

Abstract

This thesis primarily aims to understand small-sized enterprises’ interpretation of sustainable tourism concerning the local communities and explicate their practices of community inclusion in tourism. The focus of the study is examining the causes, processes, and outcomes of community inclusion in tourism. As the author is also a tourism entrepreneur, the research topic was chosen to enhance his own communication skills while collaborating with rural communities in Nepal. The theoretical framework of this study is the sustainable tourism principles and social exchange theory. Particularly, the socio-economic principle of sustainable tourism urges tourism businesses to be a viable and long-term economic operation along with fair distribution of socio-economic benefits to all, and the social exchange theory advocates the general human behaviour of exchanging physical or abstract things in society for mutual benefits. The research followed the qualitative method by integrating episodic narratives into semi-structured interviews. The study included a total of fourteen interviews: nine tourism entrepreneurs, four employees in the enterprises from the local community and a headteacher representing the local public school as a partner in business. The audio recordings of the interviews were completed between July and August 2022 which were transcribed verbatim later and processed through thematic coding. The findings suggest that small-sized enterprises interpret sustainable tourism as the smooth functioning and longevity of individual businesses. The business viability vitally concerns the local people and communities since they are regarded as unavoidable stakeholders of any tourism project and key elements of the supply chain for service delivery. The major tourism in Nepal exists in rural destinations in the natural environment where the local communities may own the resources or the Indigenous communities may have claims of their ‘rights’ over ‘waters, jungle and land’ in the vicinity. It implies that the enterprises need to ensure community participation to utilize local resources for tourism or it may be necessary for them to obtain a ‘social license to operate’ due to the reason that the ‘rights’ of Indigenous people have constitutional recognition but without implementation modality. Thus, primarily, community inclusion seems to be an existential necessity for small-sized enterprises. However, the bottom-up thrust for sharing tourism benefits and the community’s agreement for induced partnership and collaboration through social exchanges of means and resources indicate the interest of both for mutual benefits. It corroborates the theoretical dimensions of socio-economic principles of sustainable tourism that tourism is an invigorating process for both the business sector and the destination communities. The enterprises’ business growth, earning and employment opportunities for the villagers, and physical and educational development of the local public school through tourism signify that community inclusion is supportive of the thriving of the tourism business which contributes to the global norms of sustainable tourism making tourism an inclusive experience for all. However, local communities, being weak in power structure, need to be aware of securing their rights and benefits in partnership eventually.