Impact of Tourism on Indigenous Bote Community of Chitwan National Park

Abstract

Tourism acts as an economic incentive that improves the livelihood of an indigenous community residing enclosed in protected areas, helps to mitigate existing park people conflict and paves a path towards sustainable biodiversity conservation. However, it is essential to monitor and evaluate the benefit of tourism to different aspects of such indigenous communities. This paper explores the socio–cultural, economic and environmental impacts of tourism on the indigenous Bote community residing within the buffer zone area of Chitwan National Park. The study used mixed method for an in-depth tourism impact analysis on the Bote community. This study indicates that there is no socio-cultural impact on the indigenous Bote community. However, a weak positive impact on the economic and environmental aspects of the indigenous Bote community was found. This community is incapable of reaping a significant amount of potential tourism benefits despite their area having a strong destination image within Nepal’s tourism industry. Keywords: Tourism impact, Indigenous Bote community, Chitwan National Park