Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: River Tourism in Nepal: A Social, Environmental, and Economic Assessment

[108977]旅游是世界主要产业之一，旅游业对当地文化的影响是一个经久不衰的研究领域。这篇论文的研究涉及一名来自乔治亚大学的人类学学生，研究尼泊尔当地社区的河流旅游（激流漂流）的作用。学生将学习漂流公司老板、河流导游、当地河流村庄以及漂流旅游客户。该研究将从这些利益相关者群体中引出河流旅游业的主要成本和收益；利用共识分析，评估每个群体内部和群体之间对社会、环境和经济成本和效益的一致程度；并比较了两种河流的游客对河流旅游的经济贡献，一种是较短的行程，另一种是较长的行程。该研究将促进我们对河流旅游在当地村民生计中的作用的理解，并收集数据来帮助评估河流环境计划变化的影响。此外，它将推进共识分析的人类学方法论，这是一种分析一群人对特定主题的知识的方法；将有助于培养一名年轻的社会科学家，并促进我们对世界这一重要地区的了解。

0108977Rhoades / Van De BergTourism is one of the world's major industries, and the impact of this industry upon local cultures is an enduring field of study. This dissertation research involves an anthropology student from the University of Georgia studying the role of river-based tourism (whitewater rafting) in local communities in Nepal. The student will study rafting company owners, river guides, and local river villages as well as the rafting tourism clients. The study will elicit the major costs and benefits of the river tourism industry from each of these groups of stakeholders; assess the level of agreement about the social, environmental and economic costs and benefits within and between each group using consensus analysis; and compare the economic contributions made by clients of river tourism along two rivers, one of shorter and one of longer trip duration. The research will advance our understanding of the role of river tourism in the subsistence of local villagers and gather data to help assess the impact of planned changes in the river environment. In addition it will advance the anthropological methodology of consensus analysis, a way of analyzing the knowledge of a group of persons about a defined topic; will contribute to the training of a young social scientist, and advance our understanding of this important region of the world.