




































   American Economic & Social Review; Vol. 2, No. 1; 2018  

        ISSN 2576-1269   E-ISSN 2576-1277  

                                                      Published by Centre for Research on Islamic Banking & Finance and Business 

 

 
 

1 

Community Oriented-Rural Tourism Development Model 

 

Indra Bahadur Malla Thakuri1 & Govind Nepal2 

1Mewar University, Rajasthan, India 
2Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal 

Correspondence: Indra Bahadur Malla Thakuri, Mewar University, Rajasthan, India, E-mail: ibmalla@hotmail.com 

 

Received: October 25, 2017                  Accepted: October 29, 2017                   Online Published: January 2, 2018   

 

 

Abstract 

Nepal is endowed with the majestic Himalayan ranges, including Mt. Everest, which is 8848 m, is the world’s 

highest mountain peak. Nepal is renowned world-wide as a prime tourist destination due to its unparalleled natural 

beauty; diverse bio-diversity; ethnic, lingual and social diversity; and historical and cultural wealth. There are many 

lakes, rivers, mountainous areas, museums, national parks, historical places, greenery forests, cultural heritages 

which become attractions to the tourists in Nepal. Rural setting is one of the most potential areas to promote the 

rural tourism where tourists can have opportunity to observe the rural setting, culture, life-style, social relationship, 
hospitality etc of rural people in Nepal. So, the study has developed the community oriented rural tourism 

development model covering the stages of development. The study was conducted in Lamjung, Tanahu and 

Nawalparasi districts among the home-stay operators, tourist experts and other tourism related stakeholders. In-

depth interview was done with the respondents to collect their opinion about the best model of rural tourism. The 

study has developed the Community Oriented Rural Tourism Development Model (CO-RTDM) which has 

explained the seven stages of development. 

Keywords: Community-Oriented, Development, Model, Tourism, Rural.  

1. Introduction 

Tourism is one of the productive business activities directed for the production of the goods and services. It provides 

goods and services to the customers (visitors, generally foreigners) and employment and income to the locals. 

Tourism has burgeoned worldwide in the last two and half decades and outshined traditional industries to become 

one of the world's largest and fastest growing economic activities (Pao, 2005). Tourism supplements the foreign 

earnings derived from trade in commodities and sometimes finance the import goods necessary for the growth of 

manufacturing sectors in the economy. Countries like USA, Japan, Germany, and the UK hold dominant position in 

outgoing tourism. Meanwhile, countries such as Italy, France, USA, Spain, Switzerland, and Greece possess strong 
positions in incoming tourism (Cottrel, 2003, p. 2). Nepal is the largest industry in the tourism attraction due to of its 

possessing eight of the ten highest mountains in the world; Nepal is a hotspot destination for mountaineers, rock 

climbers and people seeking adventure. The Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Nepal and its cool weather are also 

strong attractions.  

Generally, tourism researchers have evaluated tourism attractions/resources from three different perspectives: 1) the 

ideographic perspective, 2) the organizational perspective, and 3) the cognitive perspective (Lew, 1994; Lew, 1987). 

The ideographic perspective is related to the supply component and often assesses tourism attractions/resources by 

asking public and private tourism professionals such as tourism stakeholders to ascertain which tourism resources or 

elements are the most important to tourists and to destination attractiveness. The organizational perspective is 

associated with the linkages component that focuses on the spatial and temporal nature of tourism 

attractions/resources. Lastly, the cognitive perspective is associated with the demand component. Most research 
from this perspective deals with the degree to which tourists are able to take risks in their travel experiences, 



 

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depending on the different types of tourism attractions available. Any single approach may not cover and evaluate 

the entire tourism attraction system. Also, there are some limitations to each approach in terms of inappropriate 

classification methods (Leiper, 1990). Thus, cross perspectives or a combination of these perspectives are suggested.  

Eco-tourism, a sub-category of sustainable tourism, is perceived by many Japanese rural communities as a new way 

to attract visitors and stimulate local economies through generating tourism revenues while conserving the natural, 

social and cultural resources of communities. As a result, many communities have started to develop ecotourism. 

Rural communities that are trying to develop ecotourism are also challenged by the need to as a sub-system to 

understand and manage the complex relationship between community and extra-community stakeholder. In some 
cases, tourism has the potential to create negative impacts, especially if allowed to develop without proper planning. 

Gunn said and indicated that there is no other form of development 'that has so many far-reaching tentacles as 

tourism does'. Specifically, tourism can impact a community in ways that would, on the surface, appear to be 

unrelated to the tourism industry (Gunn, 1994) 

Mutual, social and cultural interactions between residents and tourists are inevitable, since the tourist movements 

contribute to encountering different societies and areas, with an increasingly altering level of their differences. Thus, 

the quality of interaction between tourists and residents contributes to both tourists experience and perception of the 

visited destination and acceptance and tolerance of tourist by residents. Many elements of national cultures (values, 

norms or rules) have a considerable impact on tourists' behavior, their holiday expectations, satisfactions and 

consequently repeated visits (Reisinger & Turner, 2003).Total quality management of tourist service provider can 

influence the tourists and it can motivate tourists' repeated visit and possibility to refer other too. Besides that other 
basic infrastructures are pre-requisite for the tourism development. Transportation is essential to tourism and a key 

determinant of destination development.  

The extent and standard of infrastructure and services influence the decisions of tourists and the tourism industry, 

helping to establish overall flows between and within countries. Deficiencies and doubts about safety are likely to be 

an impediment to growth, but provision of an adequate transportation system can be a challenge for some states that 

lack resources for investment and regulation (Henderson, 2009, p. 199). Countries with poor safety records and 

without an appropriate transportation infrastructure and set of operators and services will be disadvantaged as tourist 

destinations and the topic acquires heightened relevance for some locations and markets. For example, it has been 

argued that Western tourists are most anxious about reliable and safe travelling when visiting smaller relatively 

unknown African and Asian locations (Khadaroo & Seetanah, 2008). It should be the serious concern of Nepal 

Government also to ensure the safety and security of tourists in tourist destinations. Considering this fact, Nepal 

Government has formed the 'Tourist Police' to provide the security of tourists in tourist destinations. Besides that, 
there is need to promote the rural tourism by improving the infrastructure development of appropriate tourist 

destination.  There are many places located in rural society which are appropriate for the tourist destination so need 

to identify the location for further process of planning, implementation and dissemination of tourist destination. The 

main aim of this study is to develop the community oriented rural tourism development model for the promotion of 

rural tourism of Nepal.    

2. Material & Method 

The study was based on the qualitative design to develop the model. It has adopted the constructive approach to 

generate the ideas from the in-depth interview with tourism experts, tourism related business person, home-stay 

operators of Ghalegaun of Lamjung district, Pathra of Tanahu district, and Amaltari of Nawalparasi district. Semi-

structured interview was taken with the respondents to know their opinion regarding the appropriate technique to 

promote the rural tourism. Judgmental sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The respondents shared 
their experience and ideas which become important to develop the model. The collected data was transcribed on the 

basis of theme of study. Thematic analysis of qualitative data supported to develop the model.  

3. Result & Discussion 

Several previous literatures have elaborated important theoretical tourism development models. Major tourism 

development theories and models are based on the evolutionary approach on the tourism development and the factors 

shaping it; i.e., different factors lead to the successful development of tourism in rural areas in the different stages of 

development. These theories are aiming to explain the development of tourism which can be adapted to the rural 

tourism development and analysis. There are several important tourism development theories that analyze the evolution 

of the tourism, which is based on the travel life-cycle (Butler & Miossec, 1993; Butler, 1980). These theories describe 

the development of tourism in a cyclical pattern. According to these theories, the changes in the tourism market are 

happening not due to the economic, social, or physical reasons, but because of the changing nature of the tourism 

market and the changing tourists' motivation (Streimikiene & Bilan, 2015, p. 23). 



 

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According to George, Mair and Reid (2009), in order to assess rural tourism development model, one should first 

determine which factors have motivated the local community to develop rural tourism. These reasons are different in 

different areas. Some motives of tourism development are related to the economic problems and the necessity to find 

new business niches, while in other areas the main reasons of the development of rural tourism are based on the 

available motives, where tourism supply and demand factors play an important role in rural tourism development. 

The rural tourism development model should reflect the multiple levels (Geels, 2004; Geels, 2002) and explain the 

economic transformation of the processes that take place in different levels of interaction: a niche (micro level), 

regimes (meso level), and landscape (macro level). Two different areas can specialize in the provision of the same 
services but have a completely different morphology (mountains or plains) and apply different rural regimes 

(Coenen & Truffer, 2012). Rural regime means coordination between all rural actors and stakeholders in order to 

ensure the harmonious development of rural area (Randelli, Romei, & Tortora, 2012). Therefore, it is necessary to 

have a better theoretical understanding of the key factors that determine the development of rural tourism in rural 

areas and the interaction between these factors. This makes it possible to reveal the reasons of disparities in rural 

tourism development in rural areas (Roberts & Hall, 2001). On the fact of theoretical understanding of rural 

development model, the study has proposed the Community Oriented- Rural Tourism Development Model (CO-

RTDM). This model is designed on the basis of result of primary data collected by the study. The conceptual design 

of this model is as given in Figure 1. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Figure 1: Community Oriented - Rural Tourism Development Model (CO-RTDM) 

 

The model of rural development portrayed in Figure 1 shows the seven steps of development as follows: 

 

First Stage: In the first step, it talks about the identification of tourist destinations. During the selection of tourist 

destinations, certain typical characteristics should be considered on the basis of natural beauty, culture of 

Identification of 

Tourist Destination 

Destinations 

Need Assessment & 

Planning 

Infrastructure 

Development 

Implementation 

Monitoring of TQM 

Regular 

Improvement 

Identify the tourist destinations on the basis of natural beauty, 

culture, ancient history, heritage …etc.  

Need to assess the available resources; capacity and further 

requirement as tourist destination,  

Transportation, electricity, communication, drinking water, 

health and safety should be pre-requisites of development 

Compliance of standard of home-stay, TQM, security, hygiene 

& sanitation, local (organic) food, cultural promotion,  

 

Regular monitoring from Tourism Association, Tourism Board 

and Nepal Government to check Total Quality Management 

Regular improvement on service quality on the basis of 

monitoring and feedbacks of concerned authorities  

Rural Development Promotion and mobilization of community resources with the 

involvement of local stakeholders for the rural development 



 

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surrounding community, historical importance, religion etc which can be memorable story for the visitors. 

Second Stage: In the second phase, there should be need assessment of identified tourist destination. Capacity and 

vulnerability should be assessed. Available natural resources, public participation, involvement of stakeholders, 

presence of governmental and non-governmental organizations, potential investors for tourism development and 

possibility of other development along with tourism should be assessed. Then, need to prepare the development plan 

with close consultation of tourism experts.  

Third Stage: Basic infrastructure should be developed as pre-requisites of rural tourism development. 

Transportation along with easy road access, electricity, communication, drinking water, basic health facility …etc 
should be developed. Infrastructure can support to ensure the basic quality of services.  

Fourth Stage: It is the most important stage of tourism development. This is the implementation stage so that the 

home-stay operators should compliance the basic standard of home-stay and other tourist focused hotel should also 

follow the related standard/guidelines. Total Quality Management (TQM) should be followed by security of tourists. 

Service providers should be aware on the security situation and provision and tourists should be made aware. 

Besides that, food quality should be organic, hygienic and sanitation should be fully maintained, respective behavior 

should be done with tourists, reasonable price with quality service. Tourism sectors should promote the typical 

culture also.  

Fifth Stage: Monitoring of service quality sensitize the service providers on their service quality. The study found 

that there is no provision of hiring the external expert to check the service quality of hotel or home-stay by the 

operator of hotel or home-stay. They have internal assessment system. The monitoring from government level or 
from tourism business related association or from tourism board found very weak so it should be strengthen and 

need to check the Total Quality Management-TQM against the basic standard of home-stay or other services. 

Monitoring team should have technical skill to provide the constructive feedback to correct the lacking. Monitoring 

should also encourage the service providers to provide the best service quality.  

Sixth Stage: This is the stage of regular improvement in service quality. There is no stage of perfection or 

saturation. This is the time of technology; every second, there may be new findings and products in the market. 

Everything need some improvement and change as the need of market so tourism sectors should regularly improve 

their quality on the basis of feedback of monitoring team, tourist or from their own past experiences. Public hearing 

can be done to get the feedback for the improvement.  

Seventh Stage: In the final stage of the model, rural tourism should focus on the development of rural community. 

Tourism is not related with the development of individual household but it contributes in the development of whole 

society with the active mobilization of local resources. Other potential business sectors should be promoted side by 
side to develop the community. The result of this study found not so satisfactory change in development of social 

activities; health, education and social life-style. It is the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of tourism sectors to 

promote the other opportunity of rural community with the active public participation.   

The study was based on the quantitative design following the philosophy of post-positivist. Post-positivist see the 

critical reality of finding of study so to ensure the reliability to finding of quantitative analysis, some qualitative 

discussion was also held. The study had conducted interview with home-stay operators during the data collection in 

the field and some relevant story are analyzed to support the findings of the survey. The case of each district showed 

the impact of home-stay to change the socio-economic status of home-stay operators. The idea of in-depth interview 

supported to develop the model of tourism development.  

The home-stay operators also realized the need of further improvement of home-stay to increase the number of 

tourists. The study discussed with Mr. Jogeshwor Tharu, permanent resident of Amaltari, Nawalparasi who was 
doing home-stay business since 2013 and was supported by his family members. Before starting this business, he 

worked as tourist guide in Chitwan National Park. Around 5 years he worked there and got a tremendous knowledge 

of tourism. Then, gradually, the concept of home-stay came in their community also and his neighbours started 

home-stay which inspired him to be self-employed. As their suggestions, he also started home-stay. He had no 

economic problem to start home-stay because he had saved some money from his past job so he renovated his old 

house and decorated with new furniture. He visited tourism board to know some basic requirements of home-stay 

and got idea of basic standard of home-stay. He said that he properly followed the basic standard during the 

construction phase and continuously following these standards. Then he was earning monthly around NRs. 30000/- 

which was sufficient to manage his household expenditures.Besides the benefits of home-stay, he also shared that 

there were challenges to run the home-stay. He said that the security of tourists in the tourist destination was the 

major problem and frequent road strike from political parties and inadequate facilities of electricity were also 

creating problem to increase the size of tourists. So he requested to the concerned authority and Nepal Government 
to support us by providing the security to the tourists and need to develop the basic infrastructure facilities in the 



 

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tourist destinations to extend their service in future also.  

4. Conclusion 

There are different Theoretical aspects of tourism development in different context.  Many previous theories 

describe the development of tourism in a cyclical pattern. Because of the changing nature of the tourism market and 

the changing tourists' motivation affect the changes in the tourism market. But there are important role of economic, 

social, or physical factors also to promote the rural tourism. In the context of Nepal, geographical constraint, lack of 

access of road, electricity and communication are the challenges to promote the rural tourism. Considering these 

basic requirement, the study has developed the community oriented rural tourism development model (CO-RTDM) 
having with seven stages of development. First stage talks about the identification of appropriate tourist destination, 

second stage talks about the need assessment and planning, third stage talks about the infrastructure development, 

fourth stage talks about the implementation, fifth stage talks about the monitoring of total quality management, sixth 

stage talks about the regular improvement in service and facilities on the basis of monitoring of total quality 

management and in seventh stage, it will ensure the rural development from the contribution of rural tourism 

development.  The study has develop the model so further researcher or related stakeholders can test the 

effectiveness of this model.  

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