Browsing by Author "Ikonen, Eveliina"

Understanding local people’s perceptions towards tourism is important to minimize the negative impacts of tourism and to promote sustainable tourism. This thesis researches residents’ perceptions towards tourism, tourism development and tourism impacts in the city of Pokhara in Nepal. The thesis utilises Doxey’s irritation index and social exchange theory as the theoretical framework of the research. Based on Doxey’s irritation index, local people’s attitudes towards tourism shift from positive to negative as the time goes by and tourism develops. Based on the social exchange theory used in tourism studies, local people’s perceptions towards tourism are more positive the more the locals benefit from tourism and interact with tourists and tourism. This thesis aims to also understand what kind of place image local people have of Pokhara and how residents’ place image is connected to the perceptions they have towards tourism in Pokhara. As earlier tourism research has suggested, local people’s place image and perceptions towards tourism are connected and the more positive place image locals have, the more positive their perceptions towards tourism are. This thesis research is based on qualitative methods. The research data was collected with a qualitative questionnaire distributed online for the residents of Pokhara. Open-ended questions were used in the questionnaire, so that the participants could express their place image and perceptions towards tourism with their own words. The data was analysed by using qualitative content analysis. The results of this research indicate that the majority of the participants is satisfied with the tourism situation in Pokhara. The participants are especially content that tourism creates employment and earning opportunities for local people in Pokhara. However, a few participants expressed some irritation towards tourism situation in Pokhara due to different reasons. Despite some of the more negative perceptions towards tourism, almost all of the participants supported future tourism development in the area. Similarly, almost all of the participants thought that positive tourism impacts in the area are greater than the negative impacts, even though the participants also identified several negative tourism impacts, mainly regarding the environmental degradation and westernisation of local culture, habits, and values. On the contrary to the suggestions of the Doxey’s index, locals’ attitudes towards tourism have remained mostly positive even though tourism has developed in Pokhara in the past decades. Also, the results regarding local people’s involvement with tourism and tourists compared to their perceptions towards tourism are not completely in line with the earlier tourism research using the social exchange theory. The results of this research indicate that participants’ perceptions towards tourism are not always more positive the more residents benefit from tourism and interact with tourism or tourists. On the contrary, the perceptions towards tourism might be even more often negative among the participants who have contact with tourism and tourists than those who have not. The results also indicate that the participants have mostly a positive place image of Pokhara. Even though approximately half of the participants had both positive place image and positive perceptions towards tourism, positive place image will not always automatically result in positive perceptions towards tourism among the local people.