Exploring Circularity: A Review to Assess the Opportunities and Challenges to Close Loop in Nepali Tourism Industry

Abstract

Tourism is one of the important sectors in Nepali economy and gains high priority from the government sector as well owing to its contribution in the economic, social and environmental front. Despite these benefits, the tourism sector comes with negative externalities, providing rationality for shift towards a more sustainable approach. Despite this, the circular economy is yet to gain recognition, both at the academic and industrial level in Nepal. Thus, this article aims to fulfill that gap by introducing the concept of circular economy, application of circular economy to the tourism industry and barriers for their implementation in Nepal. In different parts of the world, transition towards circular economy, which integrates the concepts of restorative economy, sharing economy and service economy, from the linear one have been identified as an approach for sustainable economic development. Innovation and application of the 4R principles have been identified as the key to the shift towards the circular economy. Innovation implies the use of new, innovative and more durable products, innovation in the production process and innovative organizational process. Innovation of business models, reduction of the resources used, reuse of the old products thereby reducing the demand for the new ones and recycling of waste products generated are some of the strategies of the circular economy that are applicable to the tourism industry. As Nepali tourism sectors are largely based on take-use-dispose form, they are unsustainable. Circular economy can address the problem associated with the tourism sector there by making the sector sustainable. But, adaptation of circular tourism is hindered mainly by financial and knowledge constraints. The study is expected to introduce and initiate academic discourse about circular tourism in Nepal.

The 10 Most Crucial Circular Economy Challenge Patterns in Tourism and the Effects of COVID-19

“…From an academic perspective, we have significantly expanded the research on CE challenges in tourism. While previous studies [20,21] have identified challenges mapped to 6 CECPs in total, our research has expanded this field by 28 CECPs for the tourism industry. Furthermore, the endeavor to make the general research on CECPs relevant for the tourism industry has a pioneering character.…”

“…On the other hand, CE challenges in the tourism sector is a field that has been highly under-researched. During our work on the CECPs, we have only identified two articles studying CE challenges for the tourism industry [20,21]. However, these articles fall short in answering our research question in two main ways.…”

“…However, these articles fall short in answering our research question in two main ways. First, Sørensen et al [20] only mention five challenges that have been mapped to four CECPs, whereas Aryal [21] mentioned various challenges in a full text that were mapped to three CECPs. We argue that it is unlikely that saturation is reached, considering that we were able to identify up to 68 CECPs in total.…”

Socioeconomic Profile of Tourists with a Greater Circular Attitude and Behaviour in Hotels of a Sun and Beach Destination

“…It has shown that tourist businesses need to be flexible and ready for change. Many businesses will look for an increase in brand image while reducing the cost associated, and them moving away from a linear economy model towards the CE in tourism is the possible solution [ 110 ]. As Zhang and Tian [ 111 ] stated, in order to increase the competitiveness of the tourism industry, circular tourism must be the solution.…”

Circular Economy and its Prospects in Nepalese Agriculture

“…If we overcome these challenges and make the transition to a circular economy it will help to reunite environmental, social and economic perspectives in agriculture and support in achieving sustainable development goals. Furthermore, after the implementation of a circular economy model, they should be monitored regularly by developing proper sets of indicators (Aryal, 2020).…”