DOES WESTERNIZATION INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS CULTURE OF A TOURISTIC CITY?
DOES WESTERNIZATION INFLUENCE THE BUSINESS CULTURE OF A TOURISTIC CITY?

Summary/Abstract: The inflow of tourists determines development, growth and sustainability of tourism business worldwide. The main dilemma of tourism entrepreneurs remains in whether to follow westernization or to preserve the local sociocultural identity. This research tries to explore the entrepreneurs’ perception about Western influence in business culture of the touristic city - Pokhara, Nepal. Cross-sectional descriptive study design is used to understand entrepreneurs’ perception, and three dummybased indices are used to measure the tourism business environment. The ordered logit regression model is adopted to check the determinant factors. It reveals that English language for communication (76.84%), Hospitality service (72.01%), Art and Decoration (68.19%) and Festivals and Cultural Performances (55.47%) have Western influences on tourism entrepreneurship in Pokhara. The results of the ordered logit model show that the overall odds of business registration, government initiation, westernization and population growth are 1.09, 1.26, 2.14 and 2.27 times respectively which signifies to potentially better business prospects provided Western culture influences are minimized while local identities are preserved under government initiatives. This research was conducted only in a dense area of Pokhara called Lakeside. We have reasons to believe that if the research could have covered the whole area and all the entrepreneurs were included, it would produce much greater picture of the westernization influences in business culture of Pokhara.

• Details
• Contents