Ecotourism for Community Development: A Stakeholder’s Perspective in Great Himalayan National Park

Ecotourism is sustainable tourism, which is based on the ecological principle and sustainable development theory. There is emergent need of capacity building for local people for ecotourism in the villages of Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP). Ecotourism involves local community for the conservation of the area’s ecology and biodiversity, in return, provides economic incentives to the community. This paper studies the ecotourism perspective from the point of view of major stakeholders of ecotourism, i.e., local communities, tourists, ecotourism operators, and government officials in Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh. This study determines the various issues related to ecotourism and these stakeholders’ opinions about these issues. A lack of knowledge and awareness exists in the local community about ecotourism and its benefits, while the other stakeholders have strong opinions for various ecotourism statements. An ANOVA test is conducted followed by a Scheffe test to the different groups of stakeholders. The paper gives some suggestions to increase ecotourism awareness, capacity building for ecotourism for the local community, and community participation for the development of ecotourism in GHNP.