ABSTRACT
In addition to these environmental problems, tourism’s impact on the economies of holiday destinations has also been criticized. Whilst advocates of tourism point towards its role in increasing incomes, and particularly in increasing foreign exchange earnings in developing countries, other authors point out that the industry’s economic benefits are not
so clear-cut. In Nepal, the independent organization NepalNet argues that much of the money spent by foreign visitors ‘leaks’ away from tourist sites, as goods and services are supplied by international companies and urban entrepreneurs. NepalNet argues that tourism development in the country has been led by the external demands of visitors, rather than local people developing products that could tap into the tourism economy. An additional factor in this leakage is that where local jobs are created, they are often low-paid and menial tasks. In the mountain areas of Nepal, portering on tourist treks is an example of such work, where poor employment conditions combine with the seasonality of the labour market to create a relatively low annual income. At the same time, pre-existing economic networks, in the form of local agricultural and herding livelihoods, can become disrupted as labour is transferred to the tourism industry at certain key periods in the farming year (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, 1998; Price, 1996). The result is that, despite the tourism industry being one of the biggest earners on the planet, economic development does not necessarily take place in the immediate destinations visited by travellers.
