How Indigenous Governance Is Shaping Sustainable Tourism in Nepal

Indigenous tourism may offer local communities a way to preserve and protect their cultural identity while achieving greater economic resilience. However, implementing such initiatives is not without challenges. Research led by Dr Roshis Krishna Shrestha of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) with the Khokana Newar community of Nepal reveals how community-led approaches grounded in Indigenous governance and cultural values can turn these challenges into opportunities for sustainable, culturally anchored tourism.

Indigenous tourism has emerged as a powerful avenue for communities worldwide to reclaim their cultural identity, strengthen their economic resilience, and maintain connections with their traditional lands and heritage”, the authors begin. For many Indigenous communities, tourism offers a promising means of alleviating the lingering socio-economic consequences of colonialism.

Regrettably, however, implementing tourism initiatives in such contexts can be challenging. “The promise and perils of Indigenous tourism have been well documented”, the researchers warn. Without proper consultation of or consent from cultural guardians, such as Indigenous Elders, tourism may result in the commodification of local heritage and resources even as it opens up new opportunities for economic development.

As such heritage and resources are hugely significant to Indigenous identity and need to be protected and preserved, it is vital for Indigenous tourism initiatives to be “community-based, aligned with collective aspirations, and respectful of Indigenous knowledge and heritage”, in the authors’ words.

A solution may lie in community-based tourism (CBT), which encourages and enables community members to collaborate and pool their resources and capabilities to achieve desired socio-economic outcomes. “This approach often leads to more equitable income distribution and community involvement”, say the researchers, “compared to government or corporate-led initiatives.

Yet the effectiveness of CBT in practice is still unclear, and obstacles to its implementation persist, including a tendency to prioritise industry vitality over community welfare and failure to fully legitimise the agency and voice of individuals in the community. “This shortcoming underscores the need for a more nuanced approach that balances individual autonomy with collective agency”, the researchers observe.

Such an approach may be afforded by community-based Indigenous tourism (CBIT), which extends CBT by placing Indigenous cultural knowledge and values at the core of tourism development. “CBIT fundamentally integrates Indigenous knowledge systems and values, anchoring them within the community’s own narratives and lived experiences”, the authors explain. “Such a framework not only preserves cultural integrity but also fosters sustainable tourism practices that are intrinsically aligned with Indigenous worldviews and aspirations”.

Importantly, this approach relies on the relationality of Indigenous values and beliefs, “which view personhood as inherently connected with others and shaped through shared experiences, challenges and actions”. Effective self-determined tourism initiatives – those involving community-wide planning and collaboration – can integrate these relational values and beliefs into an economic paradigm while maintaining cultural empowerment.

Although the functional and structural aspects of CBT have been extensively researched, its Indigenisation has received surprisingly little attention from scholars to date. “The potential of community-based tourism to foster cultural empowerment though Indigenous ontologies, traditions and institutions remains unexplored”, the authors note.

Setting out to fill this gap, they employed ethnographic methods to explore the role of CBIT in reinforcing cultural identity among the Newars of Nepal through their core traditional institution, the Guthi system.

The Newars’ home, Kathmandu Valley, is rich in cultural heritage and traditions. The authors focused on the Khokana Newars, a place-based subset of the wider Jyapu Newar community. The Khokana Newars have preserved numerous traditional cultural practices – notably the Rudrayani procession, which attracts significant domestic and international tourism – and have a robust Guthi system, indicating the depth of their cultural activities.

“Guthi” refers to a traditional Newar mechanism for self-governance. “It is primarily sustained through land ownership, allocating resources to cultural, social, and religious events”, the researchers explain. As such, the system serves as both an Indigenous economic model and a sacred structure. Guthis – the institutions that make up this system – are composed of Indigenous community members and led by Elders, who act as social and spiritual guides and custodians of Newar customs and values.

The authors focused on Guthi-led tourism. “While not directly engaging in tourism as registered companies, Guthis play a critical role in creating tourism experiences in traditional Newari settlements in the Kathmandu valley”, they say. “This approach provides a unique lens to understand how traditional values and contemporary interests are balanced as community members explore tourism opportunities”.

Within this Indigenous community, the researchers collected data first through “go-along conversations” held with two Elders while touring the local area, followed by in-depth interviews conducted with 19 community members in natural settings. “By embedding data collection within culturally significant settings and prioritising Indigenous perspectives, the study aims to produce a rich, nuanced, and respectful account of Newar practices, worldviews, and knowledge systems”, the authors tell us.

Their fieldwork concluded with a collaborative workshop held at the local Guthi house. This meticulously designed day-long event engaged 37 community Elders from Khokana in discussion of key topics related to CBIT, such as sociocultural values, community perceptions and collaboration approaches. This approach ensured that “the community’s voice was not only heard but also instrumental in shaping the research outcomes”.

Analysis of the data gathered from the fieldwork revealed that, as anticipated, cultural empowerment played a vital role in CBIT practices among the Khokana Newars. The Guthi system was a pivotal mechanism for implementing CBIT, harmonising tourism development with Indigenous values and cultural practices in ways that went beyond conventional economic frameworks.

The researchers organised their findings into two key themes. The first was empowering individual and collective social identity for tourism development. “Cultural empowerment through Guthi fosters a reciprocal relationship between tourism and community identity”, the authors explain. This ensures that tourism activities support and enhance Indigenous cultural pride and cohesion, rather than undermining them.

The second theme was institutionalising the norms of reciprocity. The Guthi system embeds the Indigenous Newar principles of reciprocity and shared responsibility into tourism practices, such as through festivals and storytelling sessions. “By serving as a repository of cultural memory and a catalyst for cultural empowerment”, say the authors, “Guthi ensures that CBIT remains intrinsically linked to the community’s historical consciousness and shared values”.

“The Khokana Newars exemplify how CBIT can flourish when firmly rooted in Indigenous governance structures that prioritise cultural integrity and socio-economic resilience”, the researchers summarise. Their findings yield two crucial practical implications for the development and promotion of CBIT among the Newars, especially in the context of the Guthi system.

First, it is vital to formulate tourism development strategies that respect and incorporate the social and cultural values of the Indigenous Newar people. “By doing so”, the researchers say, “tourism initiatives can better align with Indigenous Newars’ worldview and cultural practices, fostering more sustainable and culturally appropriate development”.

Second, to effectively incorporate – rather than merely extract – Indigenous knowledge, tourism initiatives must be anchored in Newars’ uniquely relational and reciprocal worldview. “The full realisation of the benefits of this approach”, they conclude, “hinges on embracing the community’s understanding of ‘mutually beneficial’ at initial stages of the collaborative process”.

Roshis Krishna Shrestha, J.N. Patrick L’Espoir Decosta and Michelle Whitford (2025). Reimagining Community-based Indigenous Tourism: Insights from the Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous Newars of Nepal. Tourism Management, Vol. 108, 105110.