ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to identify and evaluate the intervention of community in destination development of India based on cross-destination analysis.
Approach: The study adopted the exploratory sequential method. The employed focused group, interview, and structured questionnaire for primary data collection. One-way ANOVA was done for testing hypothesis. Data gathered from four ecotourism destinations of Kerala, India, viz Thenmala, Periyar, Parambikulam, and Wayanad.
Findings: The result indicates that the community intervention for destination development can be identified under three areas namely governance, ecodevelopment and commercial intervention with 16 variables. Except one factor pertaining to product development, all other aspects of community intervention found to be same across ecotourism destinations under study which underlines the diversity of resource profile and appropriation.
Research limitations: Study confined to community-based ecotourism destinations inside the protected areas (PAs) of India.
218 Practical implications: This study further extent scope for assessing the relationship between intervention strategies and destination sustainability, destination quality and quality of life of host communities. Further, a study on nature of intervention of community in tourism has significance in bringing more inclusive and sustainable resource management practices which can, in turn, support policy making at state or regional level and implementing the same at the destination level.
