This study aims to analyze local businesses generated by cable cars in the touristic destination. Local business entrepreneurs were the population for this study where 200 local business entrepreneurs from Chandragiri municipality were taken as a sample. The authors perform structured equation modelling (SEM) to identify local business opportunities generated by cable cars in local people living in that area. The findings revealed that the Chandragiri cable car has a significant effect on local business, meaning that there is a significant relation between business and cable cars in Chandragiri as 53.5% of respondents stated that the Chandragiri cable car has increased local business opportunities to a greater extent. The study also found that there is still a greater chance of enhancing local business opportunities.
TopIntroduction
In the current scenario, cable car helps to improve the economic living standard of people living in hilly or surrounding area. Cable cars have benefited from giving a “ride with a view,” with high standards of comfort, safety, and security in order to remain popular over time. The cable car is considered to be an emerging topic in terms of transportation as well as tourism points. As cable cars are used in general in hilly and mountain territories to reach the highly located destination, the advantages compared to other means of transportation are cheaper to build, operate and also cheaper to maintain (Brand, 2011). Cable cars do not trigger a landslide, or air pollution nor destroy the beauty of nature of hills and mountains. Also, cable cars do not need expensive operating costs and maintenance costs like air transportation (José & Bocarejo, 2014).
In the context of Nepal, Chandragiri municipality till 2015, before the construction of the Chandragiri cable car, had very limited facilities and was undeveloped. The place was not as popular and crowded as it is now due to the construction of many attractions for all groups of people, of different ages. The top of Chandragiri hills, at the height of 2,551 meters, holds historical significance along with a natural view of beautiful mountains. The operation of the cable car supports the local economy, with business opportunities opening near the base of the cable car station targeting visitors (Shrestha, 2019). The area is worked and planned upon to develop the site into an integrated entertainment place by adding attractions like a boutique hotel, a mini-amusement park, rock-climbing, zip flying, paragliding, a 6D theatre, and a botanical garden, as well as branded shops in order to restore the sustainability of the project (Msessd, 2017). The development projects could help in the rise of the economic condition of both country and its people. The economic condition of a country can be improved by various developmental projects that offer benefits to society such as job opportunities, independence, higher living standards, and so on. Society may benefit from such development, but it can also hurt society because natural resources such as trees, water, pollution, and others will be destroyed (Msessd, 2017). Chandragiri aimed to be promoted as a tourist destination with complete facilities that meet international standards (Shrestha, 2019).
After the various research done regarding the cable car, some development issue has been noticed in the development of cable cars mostly in developing and underdeveloped countries like Nepal, and issues include increasing the speed of movement, increasing the quality of cable and technology, backup electricity in terms of emergency power failure, timely and regular maintenance, and others (Msessd, 2017). Some emerging issues regarding cable cars are 1) capacity – in the majority, the cable car can only carry few passengers which is an issue as compared to other transportation; 2) resources – it includes capital, infrastructure as well as natural resources. In the construction of cable cars, it needs huge capital and infrastructure as well as in construction process it also destroys large volume of forest that can occupy huge location; 3) shorter – is also one of the emerging issues as cable cars are only constructed for a short distance, and finally 4) speed - take a longer time than others (Msessd, 2017). However in developed countries like Switzerland, Germany, the USA, and others new cable cars are being introduced which have increased the speed of movement, and the capacity to carry up to 200 persons at a time, and double rope technology in order to safety from climate (Storni et al., 2020).