Role of stakeholders in promoting eco-tourism

Abstract

Many researchers have focused on perceptions of tourists and found that tourists are indeed sensitive to issues of litter, human waste and vandalism etc. This study tries to understand the perceptual similarities and differences among the three major stakeholders (i.e. service providers, tourists, and community consisting of local people and NGOs) regarding eco-tourism activities at the Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India. Kaziranga, is one of the biologically rich national parks that has been listed in the UNESCO's World Heritage list. Responses from the three stakeholder groups were subjected to factor analysis to understand the critical factors as perceived by the three groups. Each stakeholder group was found to have its own set of critical factors. Further analysis was done on the variables to see if there was any difference between the three groups. Some points of common perception emerged. All the three groups agreed that elephant safari, feeding wildlife, soil trampling, pedestrian and vehicular traffic, souvenir collection from the park premises, patrolling by power boats, waste water, and littering were detrimental to biodiversity. Hence any policy changes will have to keep in mind that these are the areas where changes will be met with least resistance.

Keywords: Eco-tourism, perceptual study, Kaziranga (Assam), stakeholders, environmental perceptions

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