Community Based Sustainable Tourism and Its Impact on Socio-Economic Development of Phobjikha Valley

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the Impact of Community Based Sustainable Tourism development in Phobjikha Valley in Wangduephodrang district, Bhutan. This paper considers the impact of CBST from the perspective of local people in two development aspects: economic, and sociocultural.  In addition, this paper explores the perspective of the local people to support the initiation of Community-Based Sustainable Tourism in the valley of Phobjikha, through their views on the Challenges that are brought by it and the effort they put in to overcome those challenges through different means of Interventions. This paper employed mixed methods, and the data were collected through Field survey questionnaires, survey interviews, and two FGDs. This paper found that CBST has brought positive economic and socio-cultural impact, while in other aspects, it produces negative impacts such as environmental damage due to inadequate management of waste. Therefore, this paper proposes the application of collaborative strategy between community, local government, and tourism business actors in order to develop community-based sustainable tourism in Phobjikha valley.