Abstract: Tourism and its impacts is a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses economic, social, cultural, religious, ecological, environmental and political forces. Sense of community is the feeling of obligation and commitment of an individual towards other members in the community. It develops over time through understanding of collective values, beliefs and interests among community members. This study emphasizes the participation of the community and involvement of local people as volunteers in tourism development and destination management process. Golden temple, the highest Sikh shrine, is well known for its historical significance, architectural splendor and religious importance. The lesser known fact is this that an important tourism centre like Golden temple which on an average receives more than one Lakh visitors every day is managed largely through volunteer ship and community participation. The seamless organization of tourism services like food, accommodation, transportation and housekeeping through community involvement is a model lesson in management of tourism services. In the above background, we have taken Golden temple as a case study to highlight the management of community kitchen, Langar, through community involvement and participative tourism. Langar at Golden temple is considered as world’s largest kitchen and our objective is to study and highlight the organization and management of the service. Our study also involves other volunteer services in providing facilities to visitors at Golden temple. Through observation on site visit, interviews of the service providers, volunteers and tourists at the site and through secondary information sources such as internet and existing literature on the subject. The study highlights the role of community and volunteers in tourism destination management. It analyses and brings to the forefront a viable model of tourism in which all stake holders has an active level of involvement.
Keywords: Hospitality, Tourism, Culture, Community, Volunteers, Participative tourism, Sense of ownership.
Title: Community Participation in Tourism: A Case Study on Golden Temple
Author: Anshumali Pandey, Priyadarshan Singh
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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