Developing dynamic capabilities for community collaboration and tourism product innovation in response to crisis: Nepal and COVID-19

Abstract

International tourism will continuously face challenges to fully recover after COVID-19 unless destinations implement universally agreed upon public health protocols that make travellers feel safe. This challenge is even more daunting for least developed countries like Nepal, which relies on rural, nature and adventure tourism. These rural regions, already under stress prior to COVID-19, must now address the pandemic’s consequences before availing themselves of opportunities for more sustainable tourism development that experts believe the pandemic confer. We use “mutual gaze” to examine how exchange relationships between rural and urban stakeholders shape collaborative decisions on tourism development. We conceptualise tourism development interactions through the innovative development of unique offerings to attract domestic tourists during the pandemic. Data on Nepal’s rural tourism sector reveal that representative local associations enable innovation through the integration of dynamic capabilities and resources in the development of sustainable tourism products. While the study confirms the significant role government plays in facilitating cooperation among stakeholders to legitimise relationships and ascertain sustainability goals, it reveals organic collaboration is essential for inclusive planning and decision making at grassroots’ level.

Keywords:

• Dynamic capabilities
• mutual gaze
• social representation theory
• community consciousness
• COVID-19
• Nepal

Disclosure statements

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The region combines some of Nepal's most iconic mountains, including fish-tailed Machhapuchhare and massive Annapurna itself, with a superb trekking infrastructure and easy access… The region's charming Gurung, Manangi and Thakali villages add a cultural highlight (excerpt from Harris, 2020).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roshis Krishna Shrestha

Roshis Krishna Shrestha is a PhD Candidate at the Research School of Management at the Australian National University. His research interests include indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, culture and heritage tourism, and rural tourism. Despite his quantitative background, Roshis is curious about qualitative methods with special interest in ethnographic methods and grounded theory.

Patrick L’Espoir Decosta

J.N. Patrick L’Espoir Decosta is an Associate Professor at the Research School of Management at the Australian National University. His research interests include tourism marketing, postcolonialism in tourism development, destination promotion and marketing, critical tourism studies, and the geography of tourism. Patrick has expertise in grounded theory and historical research methods and has for some years looked at the integration of evidence-based methods in curriculum development and teaching in general management and tourism courses.