Exploring Community Engagement, Gender and Sustainability among Tourist Destinations in India

Resumo

This paper aims to investigate the dimensions of community engagement (CE) strategies and their relationship to destination competitiveness. Further examined the gender differences in CE in tourist destinations of India. The study adopted the exploratory sequential method. Primary data was collected through focus group discussions and expert interviews in the qualitative stage. A structured questionnaire was used for the descriptive stage. Factor analysis and a t-test were used for data analysis. The results indicate 16 CE strategies with three dimensions: governance, stewardship, and empowerment. The study further revealed no gender difference in assimilating CE practices and processes supporting the grass-root level sustainability of CBT destinations. The study goes beyond the conventional framework of CE as the study provides a holistic perspective of local empowerment, stewardship, and governance of tourism resource management that supports policymaking. Further, the study gives impetus to strengthen the local sustainability of tourism operations while understanding the potential gendered difference in resource appropriation.