ja_mageia

Tourism is commonly perceived as a profitable but risky option for communities in Africa, Asia and South America, due to the unpredictability of international demand and unwanted side effects on the local economy, society and environment. However, little is known about how people in destination communities themselves assess the risks and benefits of tourism relative to other sectors of the local economy. This article explores impacts of tourism on poor, rural host communities in Nepal through the theoretical lens of the vulnerability concept and with a particular focus on risk. As risk is context-dependant and socially constructed, vulnerability assessments should not only be based on categories of shock events that are pre-defined by outsiders, but also cater to people's perceptions and their local socio-economic context. Due to the volatility of tourist arrivals during the Maoist "People's War" in Nepal, rural tourism households were more likely to experience income shocks between 1996 and 2006 than non-tourism households. However, the analysis also reveals that in the local perception the benefits of tourism exceed the risk-related cost in the form of income fluctuations. In the notoriously insecure environment of rural Nepal, tourism is thus a preferred livelihood option, despite its 'objective' riskiness.