Paragliding tourism and cultural sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability has been defined in terms of three main pillars: environmental, social, and economic. Culture has now joined as a fourth and equally essential pillar, one that has led the discourse on sustainable tourism development. Cultural sustainability examines ways to enhance cultural identity and sense of place while promoting environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Since collaboration among various stakeholders is so critical to sustainable development and culture is part and parcel of that sustainability, this study focuses on the cultural aspect of sustainability in a paragliding tourism destination in Pokhara, Nepal. First, we identified factors stimulate the building of collaborative partnerships among stakeholders. Second, the cultural impact of paragliding in Pokhra is evaluated within the proposed dimensions of cultural sustainability including authe ticity, democracy, and education. In Pokhara, adventure tourism was shown to have positive effects on the area’s cultural authenticity, but it was found to have little effect on advancing the democratic process in decision making or on education to raise the level of awareness. The study concludes that the value of authentic culture creates cultural capital, but that the public should be encouraged to take part in tourism related activities in the community through efforts to raise public awareness.