Newari Community’s Attitude to Promote Cultural Tourism Development: Evidence from Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Cultural tourism is critical to the growth of destinations all over the world. Cultural activities and events, as well as existing local historical and cultural assets or cultural capital, shopping, and event attractions, are all believed to play a key role in the nations' cultural and economic development. In the Nepalese context, cultural tourism is widely discussed for the potential development of local and indegenous communities. Thus, the research aims to identify Newari Community’s attitude toward promoting cultural tourism development in Kathmandu Valley. Newari community people from Kathmandu valley were taken as a population, a total of 280 individuals were taken as a sample, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The attitude level of Newari people was measured using the attitude index. The Ordered Logistic Model was used to test the factors determining the Newari community's attitude towards promoting cultural tourism development. The result revealed that the Newari community is highly aware of cultural tourism development. Further, regression result shows that monthly income, employment opportunities, a wide variety of cultural activities, developed partnership, pride of local residents, sufficient information, cost of living, a problem with parking or traffic, and household employed in art and cultural activities statistically influence attitude level of Newari community to promote cultural tourism development. Hence, the Newari community should focus on promoting cultural tourism development through conservation, protection, and development of cultural management.