Published Paper Details:

Community participation has been identified as a fundamental requirement for the promotion and attainment of sustainable tourism development. However, the involvement of local communities, especially those in remote and tribal areas, in the planning, governance, and decision-making processes related to tourism is generally limited, despite the increasing importance of tourism as a source of income. The present study aims at identifying the major economic, sociocultural, institutional, infrastructural, and skill-related barriers to community participation in tourism development in the tribal regions of Kinnaur and Spiti of Himachal Pradesh, India. A mixed-method research approach was adopted in the present study, and primary data were collected from 250 local community members through structured questionnaires. The results indicate that the five most important obstacles to community participation in tourism development in the study area are the lack of professional skills and training in tourism, lack of financial support, seasonality of tourism income, exclusion of local communities from tourism planning and decision-making, and the domination of the tourism sector by elites. The study recommends the need for authorities to undertake appropriate tourism policymaking to reduce these barriers.