A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Indigenous Tourism Development: The Case of Nepal’s Newars

Abstract

Socio-cognitive factors play a significant role in multi-stakeholder collaborations but are often overlooked in Indigenous tourism research. This research examines the underlying attitudes, beliefs and values that shape structural and functional interactions in collaboration for Indigenous tourism development. Using ethnographic research approaches, this study explores the traditional ontologies and knowledge of the Indigenous Newari community in Nepal to identify the socio-cognitive factors underpinning traditional collaborative engagement in tourism. The bottom-up collaborative approach identified in this study facilitates emancipation through Indigenous tourism and offers an Indigenous-informed theoretical framework to enable the understanding and execution of Indigenous tourism initiatives. This approach emphasizes the need for genuine participative mechanisms that respect Indigenous perspectives and provide emancipatory agency. A paradigm shift in Indigenous tourism development that highlights the conscious integration of Indigenous perspectives from the inception of initiatives is needed to contest the lingering power dynamics affecting the success and sustainability of collaborative endeavors.