• Shah Nawaz
• Ashok Aima
• Bharti Gupta
• Flavia Stara

Poonch, a remotest north-west district of Jammu and Kashmir state harbours tremendous potential of tourism development. The district has its own unique combination of different cultures as it has been dwelled by different rulers in different phases of history. Despite of being one of the popular tourist destinations, the district lacks proper tourism planning and development roadmap. In the present era when sustainable tourism development is the major concern for the all the developing and developed countries, participation of local community in tourism development in the district of Poonch has been neglected. Local residents play a vital role in the development of tourism, as the host community in a particular area is a primary part of the planning process for the tourism development. The World Heritage Policy has given special importance to the community based approach. Considering community participation an important element of tourism development, the present study is an attempt to understand how the Gujjar community perceive the tourist impact on economy and culture of the community. The study also evaluates the participation of stakeholders in tourism of the study area; and how level of participation is associated with perceived economic and cultural impact of tourism in the area. The outcome of the study reveals that the concerned residents expect a positive impact from tourism development. The Positive impact is manifested from resident’s belief that tourism can enrich community development in different ways such as service enhancement, improving the quality of life and making significant economic developments. Besides that, local residents also expect festivals and cultural shows have the potential to become a major tourist attraction and thereby help inducing a sense of pride among the locals. The study also bring forth suggestions for improving the tourist footfalls by taking all stakeholders on board and work cohesively for making the study area a competitive tourist destination

Indigenous tourism, community development, tourist destinations

"Native’s Perception of Socio-Economic Impacts of Tourism: A Study of Poonch District", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.387-391, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907515.pdf

"Native’s Perception of Socio-Economic Impacts of Tourism: A Study of Poonch District", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp387-391, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1907515.pdf