Abstract
This study deals with the role of social sanctions in exploring the leisure-tourism engagement in Nepal. It then examines how people respond to societal norms and partake in leisure tourism vacations. The study applies the qualitative method and data is collected through in-depth interviews of purposely selected samples of 18 individuals in Kathmandu. The findings identify that the Nepali conception of leisure is subject to a degree of negative social sanctions, which people negotiate through their religious values and obligations. The paper establishes the centrality of social sanctions on leisure in understanding the incentives for tourism in a non-western society.
Highlights
The relationship between tourism and leisure is a close one
The sample included a civil servant in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, senior staff at the Nepal Tourism Board; hotel and travel professionals; an airline member of staff; a doctor; a student of leisure and tourism, a conservationist; politicians and public servants. These individuals were identified from the researcher’s own long engagement with research on leisure and tourism in Nepal, reports in the media and other documents, and from snowball suggestions made by respondents who were contacted during the early stage of the study
At an individual level the participants are informed by their Hindu value system; at the institutional level they are governed by the western values of globalisation and neoliberalism, which can be seen in the promotional activities of the Nepal Tourism Board, which has deployed a strong association between travel for leisure and religion in its domestic tourism promotions
Summary
The relationship between tourism and leisure is a close one. There are well-established theoretical explanations of tourism that are based on the articulation of Western leisure culture. Other studies reveal the importance of self-identity and social norms in destination selection and conclude that destinations that contribute to enhancing one’s self-identity, when they are consistent with one’s existing or aspirational social group, are more likely to be visited (Lewis et al, 2010) In all of these studies, the realm of tourism and travel motivation is linked to the Western concept of leisure (MacCannell, 1999). This study makes a useful contribution to establishing the relevancy of local conditionalities in our understanding of leisure and tourism, especially in a non-Western context It demonstrates that despite being economically independent, people choice of tourism as a leisure activity is contingent upon social approval. The above influences, together with globalisation and access to media and communications, have brought about a huge change in traditional values, practices and the structure of Nepali society which has been documented by a number of scholars (Gellner et al, 2016; Hutt, 2012; Lawoti and Hangen, 2013)
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