Development-Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: Towards an Integrative Framework

Introduction

There is little argument that over time, poverty has been one of the most significant and persistent concerns in the global development agenda. Unsurprisingly then, “reducing extreme poverty and hunger” was identified as one of the priorities in the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) - a document signed by 189 nations in 2000 with the aim of freeing human beings from multiple deprivations by 2015 (United Nations, 2003). As the MDGs come to an end in 2015, its successor - the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed via a more transparent and participative manner, which resulted in a much broader and inclusive agenda to tackle the world’s key issues (Ruhil, 2015). In particular, the SDGs seek to “end poverty in all its forms anywhere and to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment” (United Nations 2016, p.1). The SDGs thus highlight the importance of multi-dimensional poverty and an expanded vision of well-being in the global development agenda.

Yet to date, there have been limited attempts in developing a broaden agenda for the planning and development of tourism for poverty alleviation. The nexus of tourism and poverty alleviation is still largely guided by the Pro-poor Tourism (PPT) approach, which aims to increase ‘net’ tourism benefits to the economically poor population. Arguably, the focus on income poverty in the PPT discourse has resulted in the frequent absence of other poverty dimensions (e.g., social and cultural marginalisation, powerlessness) as well as local perceptions and conditions within the PPT action framework, leading PPT projects to largely concentrate on alleviating monetary poverty via a simplified economic-centred approach to poverty alleviation (Pleumarom, 2012).

This chapter explores in-depth the concept of development-tourism, which covers a plethora of alternative tourism genera (e.g., community-based tourism, exposure tourism, microfinance tourism; volunteer tourism, slum tourism) and which features poverty and/or diverse prospects of poverty alleviation via development as one of its key focuses. Currently, there is a lack of literature tying together these diverse development-tourism niches. Existing reviews (e.g., Frenzel, 2013; Scheyvens, 2012; Phi, 2017) suggest that the theoretical perspectives underpinning the link between development-tourism and poverty alleviation are also not clearly articulated. Not surprisingly then, the debate on development-tourism’s role in poverty alleviation is highly fragmented and often leads to dialogue at cross-purposes, where different commentators advocate or criticise a development-tourism niche in isolation, without giving consideration to the broader development-tourism context or its overall theoretical concepts (Ausland, 2010).

The purpose of this chapter is to build an integrative framework in order to better understand and analyse the links between development-tourism and poverty alleviation. In doing so, the chapter seeks to pave the way for more coherent efforts among the diverse stakeholders and better inform decision-makers with regard to development-tourism and its contribution to the first goal of the SDGs – poverty alleviation. To achieve this, the chapter first defines the development-tourism and poverty alleviation space, before framing the development-tourism and poverty alleviation debate within the three key strands of literature: Global citizenship; sustainable livelihoods; social entrepreneurship. A vignette of practical case is presented under each key concept to facilitate student and practitioners’ application. Finally, the implications of integrating these concepts into the discourse of development-tourism - poverty alleviation are discussed, and potential research agendas are proposed as a way forward for the future.