Objective 4: Involving the Local Community in Tourism Activities. The
survey revealed that three-quarters of the respondents had contact with
tourism, some formally through business operations and jobs, others
casually through meeting and talking to tourists on the street or at
the temples. As many as two-thirds of the sample had been offered a
new job or business opportunity since 1996 (the year following the
World Heritage Site designation); out of these 37% had started their
own business and 32% had secured a job in a hotel, guesthouse, or restaurant.
These figures cannot be directly linked to the stakeholder project
but should rather be seen as a result of the rapid increase in tourist
arrivals to Laos and Luang Prabang. The community survey demonstrated
that most of the tourism businesses and employment opportunities
in Luang Prabang had come into being after the designation ofwhether the increase in tourism is a direct result of World Heritage Site
designation per se.
In terms of involving the local community in business and job opportunities,
the development coincided with the project’s objective of
involving the local community in tourism activity. Nevertheless, the indepth
interviews revealed that there were no investment incentives offered
for entrepreneurs or financial support; hence this situation was
not a result of the project or any other strategy. The interviews also disclosed
that the project had no strategy for recruiting, educating, or
training people for the tourism industry. The government felt that
qualified manpower was one of tourism’s main challenges for further
development, a sentiment echoed by the tour operators who confirmed
that a lack of knowledge and professionals in the local industry
caused the most complaints from tourists. These findings were positive
in the sense that the local community was actively involved in activities
and directly benefiting from increased participation. However, this was
largely attributed to the rise in tourism in general, rather than through
any specific objectives of the stakeholder project.