Small Business and Livelihood: A Study of Pashupatinath UNESCO Heritage Site of Nepal

Dipesh Kumar Ghimire, Prakash Gautam (), Shyam Karki, Jiwnath Ghimire and Isao Takagi
Additional contact information
Dipesh Kumar Ghimire: Department of Economics, Soka University, Hachioji 192-8577, Japan
Prakash Gautam: Department of Business Administration, Soka University, Hachioji 192-8577, Japan
Jiwnath Ghimire: Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Isao Takagi: Department of Economics, Soka University, Hachioji 192-8577, Japan

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Small businesses in world heritage sites provide services to visitors and livelihood for residents. Besides the cultural and religious values promoted by these businesses, they also provide socioeconomic support to their owners. The Pashupatinath temple is known as Hindu’s major religious and pilgrimage destination in South Asia. Hundreds of businesses around the temple provide services to visitors. This study evaluates the socioeconomic impacts of these small businesses around Pashupatinath temple. Using a survey of 110 businesses, binary logistic regression models find that the owners of larger businesses selling religious supplies in this area are more likely to own houses in Kathmandu and to be more satisfied with their businesses. The study also finds that businesses without permanent stalls faced severe hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the socioeconomic status of a business owner through house ownership in Kathmandu, and finds that small businesses operating in the premises of the religious heritage site of Pashupatinath temple have a positive relation to the livelihood of the business owners and their families. It concludes that small-scale business in world heritage sites directly contributes to local livelihoods and economies.

Keywords: world heritage sites; small business; tourism; livelihood; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/612/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/612/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:612-:d:1019330

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().