Cargando…

Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The COVID‐19 pandemic has exerted a substantial influence on every sector of people's lives worldwide, including Nepal. The tourism industry is not exceptional. Lakeside Pokhara is one of the country's major tourist hubs and relies both on national and international vi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Paudel, Rajesh, Khadka, Seema, Rai, Jeetendra, Singh, Rakesh
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10313908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37396562
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1382
_version_ 1785067206928760832
author Paudel, Rajesh
Khadka, Seema
Rai, Jeetendra
Singh, Rakesh
author_facet Paudel, Rajesh
Khadka, Seema
Rai, Jeetendra
Singh, Rakesh
author_sort Paudel, Rajesh
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The COVID‐19 pandemic has exerted a substantial influence on every sector of people's lives worldwide, including Nepal. The tourism industry is not exceptional. Lakeside Pokhara is one of the country's major tourist hubs and relies both on national and international visitors. The people residing in this area who depend on tourism‐related businesses to regulate their daily living faced numerous stressors and psychological impacts due to the pandemic. This study aimed to explore the COVID‐19 pandemic‐related stressors and their psychological impact among people dependent on the tourism business in the Lakeside of Pokhara, located in the Gandaki Province of Nepal. METHOD: Via the qualitative approach, semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted to collect the data from 20 individuals related to tourism business stakeholders in Lakeside of Pokhara. Thematic analysis was performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: The study found business‐related stressors among the people dependent on the tourism businesses, and these stressors were found to increase the experiences of psychological issues, including suicidal ideation. The pandemic has not only affected their economy but has also had an impact on their personal, familial, and social life. However, to combat the problems most of the study participants were found to be utilizing positive coping mechanisms, whereas some respondents were observed to consume more alcohol as a negative coping strategy. CONCLUSIONS: People indulging in the tourism sectors were at greater risk of vulnerability in the future pandemic. Tourism business stakeholders struggled to combat the numerous stressors and psychological impacts carried out by the COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown. Therefore, there is a growing need for government bodies to implement favorable business‐related policies, and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) related programs to these stakeholders.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10313908
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-103139082023-07-02 Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study Paudel, Rajesh Khadka, Seema Rai, Jeetendra Singh, Rakesh Health Sci Rep Original Research BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The COVID‐19 pandemic has exerted a substantial influence on every sector of people's lives worldwide, including Nepal. The tourism industry is not exceptional. Lakeside Pokhara is one of the country's major tourist hubs and relies both on national and international visitors. The people residing in this area who depend on tourism‐related businesses to regulate their daily living faced numerous stressors and psychological impacts due to the pandemic. This study aimed to explore the COVID‐19 pandemic‐related stressors and their psychological impact among people dependent on the tourism business in the Lakeside of Pokhara, located in the Gandaki Province of Nepal. METHOD: Via the qualitative approach, semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were conducted to collect the data from 20 individuals related to tourism business stakeholders in Lakeside of Pokhara. Thematic analysis was performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: The study found business‐related stressors among the people dependent on the tourism businesses, and these stressors were found to increase the experiences of psychological issues, including suicidal ideation. The pandemic has not only affected their economy but has also had an impact on their personal, familial, and social life. However, to combat the problems most of the study participants were found to be utilizing positive coping mechanisms, whereas some respondents were observed to consume more alcohol as a negative coping strategy. CONCLUSIONS: People indulging in the tourism sectors were at greater risk of vulnerability in the future pandemic. Tourism business stakeholders struggled to combat the numerous stressors and psychological impacts carried out by the COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown. Therefore, there is a growing need for government bodies to implement favorable business‐related policies, and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) related programs to these stakeholders. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10313908/ /pubmed/37396562 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1382 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Paudel, Rajesh
Khadka, Seema
Rai, Jeetendra
Singh, Rakesh
Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title_full Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title_fullStr Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title_short Psychological impact of COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in Lakeside of Pokhara: A qualitative study
title_sort psychological impact of covid‐19 pandemic and lockdown among the population involved in tourism sector in lakeside of pokhara: a qualitative study
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10313908/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37396562
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.1382
work_keys_str_mv AT paudelrajesh psychologicalimpactofcovid19pandemicandlockdownamongthepopulationinvolvedintourismsectorinlakesideofpokharaaqualitativestudy
AT khadkaseema psychologicalimpactofcovid19pandemicandlockdownamongthepopulationinvolvedintourismsectorinlakesideofpokharaaqualitativestudy
AT raijeetendra psychologicalimpactofcovid19pandemicandlockdownamongthepopulationinvolvedintourismsectorinlakesideofpokharaaqualitativestudy
AT singhrakesh psychologicalimpactofcovid19pandemicandlockdownamongthepopulationinvolvedintourismsectorinlakesideofpokharaaqualitativestudy