Tourism-Related Facility Development in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal Himalaya

Teiji Watanabe,Yujie Sun

doi:10.3390/land10090925

Abstract

The increase in the number of tourists to mountain regions poses both opportunities and challenges for sustainable mountain development. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is essential to examine societal, landscape, and population transformation in mountain regions. This study explores transformation in the context of the tourism-related facility in Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ) of Nepal as an example of the Himalayan region. Questionnaire surveys targeting the owners and managers of tourism-related facilities and interview surveys with various community leaders, officials, and school principals were conducted in the park in 2017–2019. Both surveys show that the types, ownership, distribution, and capacity of facilities in the park have been transformed. Growth of tourist numbers, improvement of porters’ accommodation conditions, and migrant labor are the main factors driving the transformation. Tourism has also induced imbalanced development and unequal benefits among the villages in the park. The findings suggest that diversification of trekking routes and facility and service quality improvement could help to mitigate imbalanced development and unequal benefits. The in-depth examination of the transformation of tourism-related facilities augments the knowledge of the dynamic changes of facilities in mountain regions, which is vital for sustainable mountain development.

Highlights

Rural areas have long been regarded as suitable locations for tourism, which has been an economic contributor to the areas [1]
Results of the social survey in this study indicate that the types of tourism-related facilities have been diversified in ownership and management
Tourism-related mobility in Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ) is largely constrained by the topographic barrier in the park

Summary

Introduction

Rural areas have long been regarded as suitable locations for tourism, which has been an economic contributor to the areas [1]. The rapid development of tourism has brought extraordinary changes in rural areas’ economic, social, cultural, and environmental conditions [2]. Many rural areas are experiencing landscape changes generated by rural tourism [3]. Over the past four decades, rural economic development, rural settlement patterns and communities, population, migration, and social structure have been identified as the traditional concerns of rural geographers [4]. Recent studies have shifted from the physical form of rural settlements to the social dimensions of the rural community [4]. Little analytical and exhaustive research has been conducted on the relationship between the imbalanced social composition of rural areas, the spatially uneven development of tourism, and the problematic relationship between the two [5]. The review of previous works has shown considerably less research relating to developing countries [1]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion