Social and Economic Impacts of Tourism in the Sherpa Community of Simigaun, Gaurishankar Village Development Committee of Dolakha District, Nepal

Abstract

Tourism has become prime industries in the world that employs in a large scale and generates income. Number of tourist are travelling the globe, since the starting period of Nepalese tourism Sherpas are playing the vital role in tourism specially trekking and mountaineering. The study entitled “Social and Economic Impacts of Tourism in the Sherpa Community of Simigaun, Gaurishankar Village Development Committee of Dolakha District, Nepal” Gauri Shankar 2/3 Dolakha was carried out in Simigaun, to find out the impact of tourism in various factor in Sherpa community of Simigaun. With the general object of sustainable tourism and Sherpa’s contribution in tourism. This study employed both exploratory as well as descriptive research designs in order to analyze the ways tourists make perceptions about the tourism and to evaluate the challenges being involve in trekking and mountaineering profession. The universe of this study included all the Sherpa of Gaurishankar 2/3 Simigaun village.50 Sherpas were sampled as respondents by following systematic sampling. The unit of the analysis was trekking guide. The study was mainly based on primary information taken from the personnel involved in trekking as well as mountaineering who working in tourism from gaurishnkar 2/3 Simigaun Dolakha The primary data were both qualitative as well as quantitative. However, tourism bought new life in Sherpa community, which is big gain for them, rather than depending in agriculture with traditional way they went to trekking as a porter, kitchen boy, cook in this way they got to be guide nowadays some of them mountain guide and international mountain guide too. In this way, they have been contributing very positively for the tourism sector not only in this village but also in Nepal and international mountaineering. Though, tourism has been main income source for Sherpa of Gauri Shankar 2/3 Simigaun Dolakha, their contribution has been made more or less invisible while talking about the bigger scene of tourism in Sherpa community. As a result, they have not been getting sufficient attention for concerned for their own promotion from government side and have been facing problems of varied nature. Thus, it can be concluded that it's the high time for the recognition of their contribution and thereby their promotion so that they play much enhanced role in the promotion of overall tourism sector of Nepal.