Local Insights into Rural Tourism: A Study of Heeloya in the Knuckles Mountain Range

With its natural attractiveness and cultural prosperity, the Knuckles Mountain Range presents an exclusive opportunity for rural tourism, which Heeloya, a village nestled within this biodiverse area, has begun to embrace. This article investigates the local community's perceptions and attitudes towards tourism, examining the meaning of tourism in their traditional lifestyle, economy, and environment. Employing a mixed-methodological approach, the study integrates qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys analyzed through qualitative descriptive analysis and descriptive statistics. The qualitative descriptive analysis enabled the emergence of concepts underlying rural tourism. These concepts were further validated with selected quotations. A concept map created using Leximancer further substantiated these underlying conceptions and clarified the interconnectedness between the concepts. The findings suggest that the community is thoughtfully optimistic about the potential of rural tourism, encouraging a participatory approach to tourism development and engagement to ensure that it remains in congruence with Heeloya’s cultural essence and the grand Knuckles Mountain Range. This research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable rural tourism, providing valuable insights for policymakers, stakeholders, and communities considering tourism as a pathway for rural development.