An Overview of Socio-Economic Changes Brought By Tourism and Prospects of Promotion of Ecotourism on Nagarkot Area

Abstract

Assuming that there will be minimum negative impacts, maximum benefits for local people and their environment, and first hand natural and cultural experiences for visitors can be obtained by promotion of Ecotourism.

The principal purpose of this study was to analyze the present status of tourism and to study the prospect of environmentally sustainable ecotourism development in Nagarkot. This study was based on the primary data collected through questionnaires from 30 local people, 20 tourists and 20 hotel owners as well as interaction with them and secondary data from various sources. The result of this study is that most of the tourists visiting Nagarkot attracted by the view of sunrise/sunset, sightseeing of Himalayan range and peaceful environment also supports for the potentiality of the area as an ecotourism site.

This study identified that there is fewer negative environmental as well as cultural impact on the area. Tourism is found to create some economic opportunities to local people but it is not in a desirable extent and the economic benefit is not distributed equally. Although a number of constraints to further development of ecotourism were identified – poor transportation and communication facilities, poor recreational facilities, a limited season, lack of trained manpower, lack of marketing, poor solid waste management system, limited number of educated people – there is a potential to develop a viable ecotourism nterprise for a high value, low volume ecotourism market.

The study concluded that Nagarkot offers a high value ecotourism attraction in terms of the natural and scenic attributes combined with the cultural and lifestyle of its indigenous people. Hence, the prospects of ecotourism on Nagarkot is found to be very cheerful and relies greatly on planners, government, local leaders and local people of the area as well as infrastructure development that are essential for ecotourism development and thus achieving partial aim of millennium development goal.