An empirical assessment of stakeholder understanding of sustainable tourism in alpine protected areas
Article
Article Title | An empirical assessment of stakeholder understanding of sustainable tourism in alpine protected areas |
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Article Category | Article |
Authors | Imran, Sophia (Author), Alam, Khorshed (Author) and Beaumont, Narelle (Author) |
Journal Title | TEAM Journal of Hospitality and Tourism |
Journal Citation | 9 (1), pp. 15-25 |
Number of Pages | 11 |
Year | 2012 |
Place of Publication | Selangor, Malaysia |
Abstract | Sustainable tourism has been widely viewed as an effective way of addressing the socio-economic and environmental issues associated with protected areas, particularly alpine protected areas which are popular destinations, providing opportunities for adventure tourism with close-to-nature experiences. Nevertheless, the impact of tourism is controversial and its sustainability is not always evident both in terms of socio-economic development and nature conservation. This paper assesses the level of understanding of multiple stakeholders about sustainable tourism in the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP), located in Pakistan's peripheral province of Gilgit-Baltistan, where nature tourism is considered to be the most promising activity to overcome livelihood and conservation problems. Data were collected from four stakeholder groups using a previously structured survey instrument about their level of understanding of sustainable tourism while semi-structured interviews were conducted about the barriers to achieving sustainable tourism. The findings disclosed that although stakeholders had a moderately high level of understanding of sustainable tourism, the main obstacles and challenges that underpinned sustainable tourism development in CKNP were acute fragmentation between public and private entities, absence of a participatory governance structure, and a lack of tourism management plan for CKNP's potential future as a destination for sustainable tourism. Implications are discussed for building a more integrated policy approach to sustainable tourism development in protected areas. |
Keywords | sustainable tourism; participatory governance; protected areas; tourism planning; integrated management |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 380105. Environment and resource economics |
380116. Tourism economics | |
410406. Natural resource management | |
440608. Recreation, leisure and tourism geography | |
440713. Tourism policy | |
Byline Affiliations | School of Accounting, Economics and Finance |
School of Management and Marketing | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q1yz6/an-empirical-assessment-of-stakeholder-understanding-of-sustainable-tourism-in-alpine-protected-areas
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