Community Collaboration with Tourism Stakeholders: Issues and Challenges to Promote Sustainable Community Development in Annapurna Sanctuary Trail, Nepal

Abstract

Community participation and collaboration among tourism stakeholders are considered key to promote sustainable tourism planning and development in the destinations. This study aims to critically analyse the role and context of community collaboration with tourism stakeholders to promote sustainable community development in the case of Annapurna Sanctuary Trail (AST) in the Annapurna Conservation Area of Nepal. It has adopted multiple tools of data collection such as household’s survey, key informants interview, participant observation, informal discussion with local residents and archival research for examining the role and context of community collaboration with tourism stakeholders in settlements around AST. The survey results revealed that the current approach of ecotourism development is tenuous and does not truly satisfy the key objectives of ecotourism i.e. fostering inclusive participation and stakeholder’s collaboration. Although tourism has brought significant impacts on the local communities; the extent of these impacts is usually different with difference in the location of households, their level of interaction and exposure with tourists, their capacity and power to involve and influence the participation and collaboration process, and their education, skills, and financial resources. Overall, the existing approach to ecotourism planning is not able to implement the effective and efficient form of collaboration, and hence local community specifically farmers receive minimal benefits from the tourism. It is suggested to empower and enhance the collaborative capacity of local residents to actively participate and influence the planning process for receiving maximum benefits and promoting sustainable community development.