Trekking guide contribution in promotion of sustainable tourism practices in EBC trek

Abstract

Everest Base Camp (EBC) trekking is one of the well known famous and adventure activity which can be done in Himalayan county Nepal where tourists can get chance to view the stunning mountains, flora, fauna and typical culture so its sustainable preservation is important. The main objective of this research is to analyze the trekking guide contribution for promoting sustainable tourism practices in EBC where guide can work as a non-paid ambassador. The impact of eco trek, safety trek, guest host relation, teacher role and motivator role of guide has studied. The quantitative research method and purposive research design has used for this study. Trekking guide who have been working in EBC route for more than 5years has been selected as the sample. The data was collected through the online distribution of questionnaires to 300 guides where only 215 valid responses were collected regarding the concept of sustainable tourism practices in EBC. Descriptive analysis, correlation and regression analysis has done for the research. This research has found that eco-trek, safety trek, guest host relation has not significant impact on sustainable tourism while teacher role and motivator role has impact on it. Similarly, it is noticed that eco-trek, safety trek, guest host relation and motivator role has low correlated and teacher role has highly correlated. This study detected that most of the guides working in this route are male who are educated, young and married. Mostly, the extra language spoken by guides is French after English and their income earning shows their living life style is good. It is also argued that it may not be same in all destinations and differ from place to place. It is recommended to provide accommodation for porters at hotels in EBC route rather than sending them to porter house and trekking without guide should be controlled for safety purpose. Approaches should be taken regarding sustainable tourism of this route. This research can assist stakeholders and can be implemented for making tourism policy in EBC and can be helpful for new researchers who are interested for sustainable tourism study in EBC.