THE WONDERFUL AGRO-
ECOTOURISM MODEL VILLAGE
SIRUBARI VILLAGE
SIRUBARI VILLAGE
By Anita Shrestha
1. INTRODUCTION:
Nepal is a landlocked Himalayan
country bordering India and China, with enormous cultural and natural diversity
and tourism assets. The country has an area of 147,181 square kilometers or
0.1% of total land mass of the Earth. 83% of total area is covered by Mountains
thus providing increased opportunities for nature based tourism and\or
adventure tourism, including Trekking, Mountaineering, Rafting, Paragliding,
Cycling, Wildlife observation and Bird watching and cultural experiences.
Almost all of these activities take place in rural areas except cultural
tourism in Kathmandu valley which hosts attractive art and architectural
building and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Cultural). Tourism
development in Nepal dates back to the early 1950s following the successful
ascent of Mount Annapurna by French mountaineer Maurice Hergoz, and three years
later the successful ascent of Mount Everest, world’s highest peak, the
Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgey and Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealander.
The major issue remains that the tourism income is not being shared by all
parts of the country; it remains confined to the major trekking trails and
destinations such as Everest, Langtang, Annapurna, Kathmandu, Pokhara and
Chitwan region, often referred to as the ‘tourism triangle’. This has led to
the tourism entrepreneurs and development workers to seek alternative ways on
how to diversify the tourism benefits to other parts of the country as well in
par with environmental conservation. Nepal’s rural settings also provide a
strong foundation to promote rural and\or village-based tourism because of its
unique lifestyle, unspoiled culture and tradition. If marketed in an innovative
way it can bring tourism benefits in the villages that are off the main
trekking trails and help create off-farm employment.
2. VILLAGE TOURISM EVOLUTION
AND DEVELOPMENT:
Nepal
has more than 101 ethnic groups and 92 spoken languages and a rich variety of
cultures, lifestyles, values and traditions. Although the law and the interim
Constitution has provided equal rights to all ethnic and religious groups,
Nepal is characterized by a highly stratified social system, resulting in the
presence of many castes.
In Sirubari village, Syangja district, west
Nepal, there are the Gurung and the Dalit communities consisting of Damai, Kami and
Sarki, which are often denoted as ‘occupational castes’. The village tourism
‘product’, Sirubari, only showcases the Gurung community and not the Dalit.
With the exception of the Damai who are engaged in welcome, farewell and
portering, no other Dalit castes are involved in tourism activities. Locally as
well as nationally, the Gurung, who are officially Buddhist but also follow
Hindu rituals and festivals, have a higher socio-economic status than the
Damai.
Due
to the lack of alternative livelihood options the youth and productive work
force are compelled to emigration to cities and abroad. Over 86% of Nepal’s
population live in rural areas, more specifically in 3,915 Village Development
Committees (V.D.C.) Farming is the main occupation and non-farming
opportunities are very rare so the emigration is inevitable in rural Nepal
(Upadhyay, 2007).
To
tackle this situation, the concept of village tourism was introduced for the
first time in Nepal in Sirubari village. The village is located at an altitude
of 1,700 meter above sea level and one can reach Sirubari either by Jeep ride
from district headquarter Syangja bazaar (Putalibazar) or by Bus/Jeep
from Naudanda along the Pokhara-Sunauli Highway (Siddhartha Highway). However,
the trip from Helu-Lamachaur (about 50 kms south of Pokhara) along the same
highway offers the joint experience of adventure travel and short trekking
along the lush green valley and terraced farm land of Darau-Khola and then
uphill climb of about 2 hours from Arjun Chaupari. Visitors can choose either
to walk (maximum of 4 hours) from Helu-Lamachaur up to the village via Arjun
Chaupari or can ride on Bus/Jeep up to Arjun Chaupari and then a short trek.
Nepal Village Resorts (NVR), a Kathmandu based travel agency serving as s
marketing agency of the village tourism product of Sirubari, states that the
first commercial group of 16 Belgian tourists were taken to Sirubari in October
1997.
Typical
House in Sirubari
Before the initiation of village tourism in 1997,
the village was no different than any other villages. However its unspoiled
Gurung culture and intact rural traditions seemed to be a strong foundation to
on which to build village tourism.
In
the initial stage of village tourism development, the model faced several
challenges, especially in the marketing and promotion category. Small scale
development works such as drinking water supply, local trail improvements,
community hall establishment, repair and maintenances of village temples and
Gompas can be done by villagers themselves from their community fund and
voluntary contribution of labour and local skills. The Sirubari experience
shows that the utmost importance for the success of such type of tourism is the
local peoples’ participation (from cost to benefit sharing and in all stages of
development) and a feeling of ownership of the project.
Tourism
development has also been quite easy in Sirubari because it had already some
sort of tourism infrastructure before the initiation of tourism. Strong unity
among villagers, active youth club and mothers group were key local features. Key
factors also included a supply of drinking water, experience in community
forest management and good walking trails.
3. TOURISM MANAGEMENT:
The most interesting aspect of Sirubari village
tourism is its management paradigm. The overall management responsibilities of
tourism activities are shared by 9 TDMC members consisting of the President,
Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and 5 Members (Thapa, 2004) representing
the local youth club, mothers group, fathers group, and others chosen from the
consensus among villagers. It has the full right to make and amend any rules
and regulations pertaining to tourism activities in the village. It manages the
welcome and farewell ceremony, guest room (including type and quality of food
and accommodation), local environmental sanitation and hygiene, assigns
visitors to the local hosts on a rotational basis, arranging village tour
activities through one of the community members and so on.
The TDMC sets the minimum requirement for guestrooms
such as the room quality, cleanliness, food hygiene and menu, the security of
visitors and their belongings, among others. There are two different guestroom
categories. In the first category, which meets the strictest requirements, TDMC
members host national and international visitors while the second one is only
for national visitors. In 2004, Sirubari had 25 households as active TDMC
members offering accommodation . Even Gurung households that do not host guests
participate actively in the village development programme and accrue tourism
benefits indirectly in the form of community development.
In
fact, occupational castes do not host any guests because they cannot meet the
set requirements and physical infrastructure demanded by TDMC. However, their
role in playing musical instruments during welcome and farewell processions,
portering work and the involvement in small scale construction work also
provided them both economic and non-economic benefits which in the absence of
tourism could be impossible. They also use community assets and their increased
awareness of cleanliness, sanitation, health and so on can be directly
attributed to tourism.
Gurungs
are in the driving seat of Sirubari village tourism and the TDMC almost
consists exclusively of Gurungs. They make all the necessary rules and
regulations themselves as they are the tourists’ hosts. Occupational castes are
employed in supportive works in the development of village tourism, mainly
contributing to physical labour rather than economic investment. One cannot
guess the success of village tourism in the absence of occupational castes.
Visitors’ perceptions, both national
and international, are very positive towards tourism activities in Sirubari.
Almost all of the visitors who registered comments in the visitors book kept in
Buddha Gompa, praised Sirubari. We divided the comments into 6 major headings:
Visitors liked Culture (16%), Environmental Quality (17%), Hospitality (24%),
Satisfaction (15%),Socialstructure (22%) and gave Recommendations for further
improvement (6%) .
The major tourism resources of the
village are Local Gurung culture, Livelihoods pattern, (the way of living),
community forest/forest nursery, and the Thumro Juro view point. Tourism
activities begin from the arrival day as they experience the unforgettable
welcome procession from gate of the village. The people queue up at the main
entrance to welcome tourists with flower bouquets and garlands and the Panchai
baja is played on. They take the tourists to the Buddha Gompa where light
snacks are offered to them and after short break they are handed over to the
guestroom owner as per their turn on rotational basis. On the second day of
their arrival, tourists are taken to Thumro Juro (if the weather is clear) to
see the Himalayan ranges. They get the chance to see the community forest too.
In the day time tourists are shown the local way of living such as agriculture
works, animal husbandry, use of wood made traditional grinding machine and so
on. They can explore the nearby government school, health post and other rural
settlements and villager’s daily interaction for the livelihoods. Even tourists
can participate in household activities such as cooking, milking cow or
buffalo, participate in harvesting crops or do some work in the kitchen garden,
depending on the cropping season. Everything is open to them and they can get
chance to explore village on their own wish and interest. In the evening of the
second day, a cultural programme is organized in the community building with
singing and dancing. Gurung dances such as Sorathi and Gathu with some folk
songs and dances can be observed there. On the third day, after their breakfast
with the host, they leave the village. Once again they gather in the Buddha
Gompa, get some blessing from the lama (Gompa Buddha priest), and write some
comments and their experience in the visitors’ book. After the Tika and
blessings from the Lama they are praised with Sirubari Topi (Cap) as a token of
love and appreciation. Once again they are seen off from the village; people
queue up in line and offer flowers and garlands.
4. TOURISM IMPACTS:
Tourism
does not only create benefits but it brings along some negative impacts which
can be devastating if not managed properly and addressed in time. With the
growth of tourism, the negative impacts worldwide include loss of cultural
integrity, environmental damages and inflation. In a country like Nepal, where
the cultural and social structure is still traditional and intact, there is
sensitivity to any negative influence from tourism. Similarly, the fragile
mountain environment and deteriorating pristine natural environment can also be
very sensitive towards tourism as the growing number of tourists and their
demand for daily needs put pressure on natural resources. Acculturation of
intact tradition/culture and westernization can be attributed to the cultural
erosion of Nepal whereas depletion of natural resources, especially forest,
wildlife and biodiversity, accumulation of waste along trekking trails and
destination community can be pointed to negative environmental impacts. Leakage
of tourism income and lack of coordination between tourism activities and local
production system are the examples of negative economic impacts. These have
been the subject of discussion among academia, policy makers and practitioners
on how to reduce it. A study in the Annapurna Conservation Area (Ghorepani)
shows that 76.41 % of total income was used to import various goods among
lodges whereas just 23.59 % remained in the destination community. Another
study shows that only 6% of the total income was retained in local economy in
the Annapurna Conservation Area .
Negative
environmental impacts have not been experienced so far in Sirubari, probably
because of the low flow of tourists. The Award-winning community forest has
maintained a good biodiversity with presence of different species of wildlife,
including birds. Consumption of a local meal together with the host family has
discouraged the use of packaged food items that are popular in urban based
tourism so the problem of disposing plastic is reduced. Generally, the meal is
offered in the village 4 times a day: breakfast, lunch, late afternoon light
snacks and dinner. Breakfast contains tea, milk, egg, homemade bread (typical
to Nepal’s lifestyles) with light fried spicy (not hot) potatoes. Lunch
consists of the food items taken by ordinary Nepalis: rice, lentils,
vegetables, tomato chutney, chicken meat and salads such as onions and
cucumber. Late afternoon snacks may contain tea, maize, some kind of bread,
bitten rice. Dinner is similar to lunch along with home brewed alcohol. Rice
pudding is also offered as dessert. More than 95% of the meal that is offered
to tourists in Sirubari is similar to taste and variety that is daily consumed
by Nepalese people.
Grey water from toilet and bathroom
are supplied to septic tank whereas waste water from house hold activities are
supplied to kitchen garden. Bio-degradable waste is used to make compost or
mixed together with farm yard manure (Thapa, 2005). At least once a week,
villagers organize a cleaning campaign in the village’s main trails and
community area to make it aesthetically pleasant for the guests. Many mountain
tourism destinations in Nepal are facing a deforestation problem due to the
continuous supply of firewood to meet the growing needs of energy to tourists
and local people and the absence of alternative energy sources. The case of
Sirubari is again different, tourism has led to the adoption of alternative
energy. 93% of the surveyed households have some sort of alternative energy
sources such as improved cook stoves, biogas and solar cooker .
Solar
Cooker
Research shows that the visitors are
willing to pay more than double for the current level of entry fee (27 U.S.
dollar) in Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal in order to better protect the
environment . So, a similar conclusion can be drawn for Sirubari: a better
natural environment will attract responsible or environmentally conscious
tourists willing to pay more for the services they take resulting in a direct
positive impact in local economy.
Dung
Mixture and main biogas valve
Leakages
have been the major issue of concern in the tourism sector. The communities who
bear the environmental and social costs of tourism do not receive tourism
benefits in many cases. The level of economic benefits from tourism that the
villagers in Sirubari received is quite low in comparison to the investment
made on guest room (NRs. 50,299) and operating costs (NRs. 10,422)
The
opportunities derived from village tourism in Sirubari have been proved by the
awards gained by the village in various sectors: tourism, forestry, youth,
development sector. Due to the high rating of youth involvement in village
development the local youth club of Sirubari won a national youth award in
1993. Likewise, the forest user group of Sirubari has won the national forest
conservation award in 1995. Sirubari village tourism project won the Pacific
Asia Travel Association (PATA) gold award in the heritage category at the 2001
PATA gold awards. Similarly, the government of Nepal has recognized Sirubari
for its contribution to sustainable mountain development at the local level. In
this regard, the village has been awarded the International Mountain
Development prize on the occasion of International Mountain Day 2004.
6. CONCLUSION:
Village Tourism in Sirubari is small
scale and can be considered and alternative form of tourism in terms of visitor
numbers and tourism practices. It neither involves central level planning nor
an existing tourist destination, but a tourism product developed from the
grassroots level through the active participation of the people in consultation
and co-ordination with an urban travel agency which took care of marketing
responsibility. It has provided a lesson to the government on how to extend
tourism benefits to the rural people. Various awards bagged by Sirubari village
reflect its success as a role model not only for Nepal but also for the world.
The successful initiation and
implementation of Sirubari village tourism depended on some important factors
which are listed below :
- Overwhelming local support for community oriented
projects,
- Proactive marketing and publicity at the national
level,
- Strong social and economic standing of the
participants,
- Community support for tourism and willingness to adapt
to economic opportunities,
- Projects built upon principles of partnership and
collaboration and
- External support to the projects from the governments
and NGOs.
Sirubari is the only such tourism
destination in Nepal where the domestic tourists exceed international tourists.
Domestic tourists especially visit Sirubari to get the lessons of village
development whereas international tourists visit to see the Nepalese rural way
of living and to experience its cultural in natural settings along with some
other activities. With the observance of peace process and political stability
in the country it is assumed that more tourists will visit the village. Nepal
has prepared itself to see the year 2011 as Visit Nepal Year so it will be the
golden period to market Sirubari accordingly from now on and to target quality
tourists rather than budget tourists.
Preparation
of tourism management plan, promotion of tourism and environmental awareness
programme, and marketing of the village via internet or latest mode of
communication help to internationalize on the occasion of “Nepal Tourism Year
2011”. To make village tourism sustainable and to promote it through the
concept of sustainability, especial target should focus on to host high
quality-low number of tourists rather than low quality-high numbers.
Appendix 1: Tourism management and operational modality in
Sirubari Village Tourism in 2001 (Parr, 2001) – valid until 2007.
Appendix 2: Current tourism management and operational modality in Sirubari Village Tourism (after the agreement dismissed with NVR). This modality may undergo changes if TDMC enter into new agreement with some other travel/tour operator.
