WILLIAM ROGER VAN DE BERG Whitewater Rafting in Nepal: An Anthropological Analysis of Participation in the Global Tourism Industry (Under the direction of ROBERT E. RHOADES) This dissertation contributes to the theoretical and methodological advancement of the anthropology of tourism through a study of whitewater rafting in Nepal. First, it provides the first intensive ethnographic study of this relatively recent form of adventure ecotourism that is becoming increasingly important for tourists and receiving nations. Second, the dissertation demonstrates novel approaches to the field study of tourism, including use of multi-sited research, consensus analysis, and interdisciplinary tools from geography and economics. Third, the impact of civil and military unrest--in this case Nepal's Maoist insurgency--on tourism is ethnographically described. The role of Nepal's river-based tourism has played in generating positive and negative consequences for participating members of the host community was empirically researched. Five distinct groups of tourism participants--rafting company owners, river guides, company office staff, and local riverine villagers and rafting tourism clientele were studied. The specific objectives aimed to: (1) discern agreement within and between each of the four groups with regard to the cognized perceptions of social, environmental, and economic costs and benefits; (2) objectively assess the operational reality of the river tourism operations for two commonly used rivers. Results indicated that there was less agreement on the rafting industry’s costs and benefits within two of the five groups and more consistency between all five of the groups than was expected in the project’s hypotheses. Operationally, the rafting industry appeared to have a minimal environmental impact but a relatively significant economic impact with longer, remote river runs generating more non-rafting company related spending on river trips by clientele of rafting operations than shorter, roadside river runs. Although these results are specific to Nepal, it is hoped they can be used by policymakers throughout the world to craft more effective river tourism development plans. INDEX WORDS: Tourism, Sustainable Development, Natural Resource Management, Impact Assessment, Political Ecology, Environmental Anthropology, Whitewater Rafting, River Tourism, Community Participation, Riverine Development, Hydropower, Cultural Consensus Analysis, Terrorism, Insurgency, Maoists, Nepal, Himalayas, Mountains WHITEWATER RAFTING IN NEPAL: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE GLOBAL TOURISM INDUSTRY By WILLIAM ROGER VAN DE BERG B.A., University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 1992 M.A., Wake Forest University, 1996 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2003 „ 2003 William Roger Van De Berg All Rights Reserved WHITEWATER RAFTING IN NEPAL: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE GLOBAL TOURISM INDUSTRY By WILLIAM ROGER VAN DE BERG Approved: Major Professor: Robert Rhoades Committee: Ben Blount Pete Brosius Virginia Nazarea Fausto Sarmiento Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2003 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the river runners of the world and to all those who enjoy and use the rivers of the earth. In particular, this dissertation is for the Nepalese river guides and company owners, who have chosen to engage in an occupation that they love and which holds the promise of sustainable development for the rivers that they live, love, work and sometimes unfortunately, die upon. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This dissertation is dedicated first and foremost to my loving family, whose unflinching support of my academic career has helped me to stay my course and finish what I had begun so very long ago. I would especially like to thank my dear wife Lelania for believing in me and sticking with me through the tough times we have had over the course of my educational career. Secondly, I would like to thank my parents, whose help in every way has helped to smooth over the roughest of spots. Lastly, I would like to thank my river loving dogs Chillum and Nadi, whose unconditional love and affection helped to put a smile on my face every day throughout the writing process. I would also like to thank the participants of the Nepalese rafting industry for their allowing me to work with them and for sharing their lives with me in order to make this project possible. In particular, I would like to thank Mahendra Singh Thapa, President of the Nepal Association of Rafting Agents, and David Allardice, whose initial and continuing support of my research was invaluable in allowing me to conduct this project. I would like to thank the National Science Foundation for its generous support for the current project in the form of a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (Grant # 0108977). I would also like to thank the Earthwatch Institute for its funding and research volunteers for this project. Additional thanks go out to Perception Kayaks, Harmony Accessories, Palm Equipment, Chaco Sandals and Gexar Action Camera Systems for their generous donations of equipment necessary for the successful completion of this project. I would also like to offer thanks to the International Center for Integrated v Mountain Development in Kathmandu, Nepal for their assistance and support of the project in the form of a research affiliation over the duration of my fieldwork in Nepal. Lastly and most significantly, I would like to thank my dissertation advisor Dr. Robert E. Rhoades for his intellectual support of my research as well as his pragmatic advice and suggestions. I would also like to wholeheartedly acknowledge the invaluable contributions of my dissertation committee members Dr. Ben Blount, Dr. Pete Brosius, Dr. Fausto Sarmiento and Dr. Virginia Nazarea. Without their inspiration and support, this project would have never succeeded. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………..…v LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………….ix LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………...1 2 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF TOURISM: AN OVERVIEW…………...14 3 THE WHITEWATER RAFTING INDUSTRY OF NEPAL……..……..33 4 RESEARCH SETTING ………………………………………………....52 5 SOCIAL ACTORS AND COGNIZED MODELS OF THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE NEPALESE RIVER TOURISM INDUSTRY…………………………………..……………..70 6 OPERATIONAL MODELS OF THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF WHITEWATER RAFTING OPERATIONS IN NEPAL……………...133 7 TOURISM, TERRORISM AND CONFLICT: NEPAL’S MAOIST INSURGENCY AND ITS IMPACT ON NEPAL’S TOURISM INDUSTRY ……………………………………………………………162 8 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………189 vii APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………….200 A SOBEK EXPEDITIONS FIRST RAFT DESCENTS………………….201 B CULTURAL CONSENSUS QUESTION FACTORS………….……...202 C CONSENSUS SURVEY AND RESPONSES BY GROUP……….…..203 D NEPAL RIVER RAFTING POST-TRIP SURVEY……………...……211 E POST-TRIP ECONOMIC SURVEY RESULTS BREAKDOWN BY QUESTION……………………………………………………………..213 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………214 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1: Rafting Client Data for Nepal By River for Years 1990-2000….…………………..40 3.2: Rafting Industry owners by Ethnicity:……………….……………………………...49 3.3: Rafting Industry Guides by Ethnicity……………………………………………….50 4.1: Characteristics of Two Study Rivers………………………………………………..62 5.1: Cultural Consensus Study Participants: Demographic……………………………...88 5.2: Nepalese Cultural Consensus Participants: Ethnicity………………..……………..89 5.3: Nepali Participants by Type of Participation & Ethnicity: Owners……………..…..90 5.4: Nepali Participants by Type of Participation & Ethnicity: Guides……………..…...91 5.5: Nepali Participants by Type of Participation & Ethnicity: Office staff…………..…92 5.6: Nepali Participants by Type of Participation & Ethnicity: Villagers…………….....93 5.7: Cultural Consensus Eigen Values: Within Group……………………………..……97 5.8: Cultural Consensus Eigen Values: Within ethnic groups……………………..…….98 5.9: Cultural Consensus Eigen Values: Between Groups………………………………101 6.1: Percentages of total sample used in economic survey data analysis………………149 7.1. Comparison of monthly data of Total Tourist and Third Country Tourist (non- Indian) arrivals in Nepal up to October for 2001 and 2002..……….… ………....178 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 3.1: Map of the rivers commercially rafted in Nepal ……………………………………42 4.1: Map of Asian region………………………………………………………………...53 4.2: Map of South Asian region………………………………………………………….54 4.3: Map of Nepal’s physiographic zones………………………………………………..54 4.4: Example of a river resort alongside the Bhote Kosi River, Nepal…….…………….65 4.5: River rafting map of the Bhote Kosi River, Nepal………………………………….66 4.6: Riverside camping along remote rivers such as Kali Gandaki River……………….67 4.7: River rafting map of the Kali Gandaki River, Nepal……………….……………….69 5.1; Consensus surveying of river guides………………………………………………..72 5.2: Consensus surveying of owners and office staff …………………………………....72 5.3: Consensus surveying of rafting clientele at Bhote Kosi resort..…………………….73 5.4: Consensus surveying of river villagers……………………………………………...73 6.1: Usage of GPS waypoints to document rafting trip contact points…………………153 6.2: Rafting clientele and guides shopping for lunch at Zero Kilometer village along the roadside en route to the Bhote Kosi…………………………...…….………….….160 6.3: Guides and Clients Re-supply