Tourism and Pandemic Understanding Livelihood Negotiation Process of Tourism-Dependent Communities

Abstract

The recent pandemic (Covid-19 virus) has had a highly devastating consequence on tourism, nipping tourism-related professions  around the world into laying off employees and predicting as many as 50 million jobs lost in the tourism sector. But the pandemic  confined their subsistence through different rules and regulations. So this article will critically argue that within the same geographical area, the livelihood negotiation process is not the same for all, as well as livelihood negotiation activities do not depend on individual  choice; rather, they depend on the available options of activities in that particular area or culture. As this was qualitative research and  for field data collection as well, this research adopted diverse qualitative data collection tools named Focus Group Discussion (FGD),  Indepth Interview (IDI), and Case Study. This research has chosen Sadar Upazila of the Rangamati District (Chittagong Division) as the  data collection field. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rangamati district, like all tourist destinations, saw a drop in visitors. As a  result, those whose livelihoods rely on tourism, as well as tourist movement, face economic, social, and business capital challenges.  people in that area had to negotiate with their means by changing professions, accepting help from kin and using savings to save the  family, switching natural professions such as retailers to wholesalers, arranging loans to keep a job, and turning side jobs into the main source of income, and breaking state rules to keep a job. Current research concluded with the argument that living and  depending on the same ground, hill people's lives and livelihood negotiation processes are distinctively different from each other.