Barriers to tourism participation: A case of first‐generation local community service providers

Abstract

Participation in tourism businesses for the local community often comes with various challenges. A better understanding of barriers to tourism development can help manage and smoothen community participation in tourism. Over the past two decades, an effort has been made to understand the barriers to tourism, but the perspective of first-generation community participation is not explored in the existing literature. The current study measures barriers to tourism participation through four parameters, i.e., sociocultural, infrastructural, operational, and personal barriers. The study examined the barriers of first-generation service providers from the rural tribal belt of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Data were collected using the purposive sampling technique from various tourism and allied services owned and managed by the local tribal community. The findings indicate that barriers related to the infrastructural support system are the dominant form of barriers. In contrast, the sociocultural factors do not act as a strong barrier among service providers. However, this report defers to other studies on tribal communities that indicate specific sociocultural barriers to participating in the tourism business. The study shows that willingness and conducive sociocultural aspects alone are not sufficient to lead a profitable tourism business. Furthermore, the study also recounts the importance of external intervention for macro-level planning in tourism infrastructure.

Is homestay service an ideal business opportunity for women?

“…These women should be trained to produce their crafts for commercial purposes. One of our earlier studies (Yaja et al 2022) in this region also showed a favourable attitude towards tourism enterprises from the local community. Despite the fact that tourism as a profession was new to them, all of the professionals involved were first-generation members, and they entered the industry without any socio-cultural dogmas, the local community expressed enthusiasm for tourism and related businesses.…”

Mapping the Research Trends on Dark Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization

“…According to the literature assessment, a holistic understanding of the theoretical and scholarly reinforcement of dark tourism related researches is rare. To understand the foundations, structural features and trends of dark tourism, this present research adopts an approach which is evaluative and relational in nature (Yaja, et al, 2023;Benckendorff & Zehrer, 2013). The findings of this study reflect that there has been a significant growth in dark tourism research since the year 2013.…”

Informed local communities act as catalysts for tourism development: Evidence from rural India

“…As a result, the development of tourism products and services at the local level is hampered. And this lack of awareness is reported as a barrier to tourism development (Stone & Stone, 2011;Yaja et al, 2023a). However, questions remain on how such barriers can be removed and through what medium, as well as how to make locals understand tourism projects and plans, particularly in new tourist destinations.…”