Adventure Travel and Sustainable Tourism in the Peripheral Economy of Nepal
Author(s)
Zurick, D. N.
Abstract
Adventure travel is one of the fastest growing but least understood forms of international tourism. Its role in the economic development of remote world places and its impact on local society, economy, and the environment are not fully comprehended, even though adventure tourism has been adopted enthusiastically by many Third World nations. The paper analyzes adventure travel in Nepal and places it within the theoretical frameworks of tourism models and sustainable development. Building on core-periphery tourism theory, an adventure travel spatial-linkage model is proposed that connects Nepal’s remote frontiers with the global tourism economy. Within this model, adventure tourists move through a hierarchy of travel gateways before reaching adventure destinations located among isolated, subsistence populations. This movement produces a unique structure of tourism space that in turn contributes to the formation in Nepal of regional developments such as hilltown gateways, hinterland tourism destinations, and multi-use parklands. An adventure tourism impact model relates tourism problems associated with exceeding social and environmental carrying capacities. It also includes more positive impacts linked to converging the interests of Nepal’s national economy, indigenous populations, tourists, and conservation development. With its steady growth, adventure tourism in Nepal will play an increasingly important role for national and local development in the frontier areas.
