Poverty alleviation and sustainable tourism

1. BY ANAGHA A KUMAR
POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

2. INTRODUCTION
 Poverty alleviation has become an essential condition for peace, environmental
conservation and sustainable development, besides being an ethical obligation in an
affluent world, where the divide between poor and rich nations seems to have increased
in recent years.
 Despite a growing world economy many people in developing countries are not reaping
the potential benefits of globalization.
 The potential for tourism to play a significant role in the alleviation of poverty is
increasingly recognised by international bodies and national governments. Its
geographical expansion and labour intensive nature support a spread of employment and
can be particularly relevant in remote and rural areas where many of the poor live.
 UNWTO statistics show the growing strength of the tourism industry for developing
countries.
 Tourism is one of the major export sectors of developing countries, and is the primary
source of foreign exchange earnings in 46 of the 49 Least developed Countries.

3. WHAT IS POVERTY ALLEVIATION?
 Poverty reduction, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures,
both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently
lift people out of poverty.
 Poverty has been historically accepted in some parts of the world
as inevitable as non-industrialized economies produced very little
while populations grew almost as fast, making wealth scarce.
 Poverty alleviation also involves improving the living conditions of
people who are already poor. Aid, particularly in medical and
scientific areas, is essential in providing better lives, such as the
Green Revolution and the eradication of smallpox.
 Economic liberalization requires extending property rights to the
poor, especially to land.
 Financial services, notably savings, can be made accessible to the
poor through technology, such as mobile banking.
 Aid and government support in health, education and infrastructure
helps growth by increasing human and physical capital.

4. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
 Sustainable tourism, one that establishes a suitable balance between
the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism
development, plays an important role in conserving biodiversity. It
attempts to minimize its impact on the environment and local
culture so that it will be available for future generations, while
contributing to generate income, employment, and the conservation
of local ecosystems.
 By doing so, sustainable tourism maximizes the positive
contribution of tourism to biodiversity conservation and thus to
poverty reduction and the achievement of common goals towards
sustainable development.
 Sustainable tourism provides crucial economic incentives for habitat
protection. Revenues from visitor spending are often channelled
back into nature conservation or capacity building programmes for
local communities to manage protected areas.

5. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND
POVERTY ALLEVIATION
THE SPECIAL POSITION OF TOURISM IN POVERTY
ALLEVIATION
1. The size and growth of the sector
In many countries, tourism acts as an engine for development through
foreign exchange earnings and the creation of direct and indirect
employment. Tourism contributes 5% of the world’s GDP. It accounts
for 6% of the world’s exports in services being the fourth largest export
sector after fuels, chemicals and automotive products. Tourism is
responsible for 235 million jobs, or one in every 12 jobs worldwide.
In 2011, international arrivals grew by over 4% reaching 982 million,
up from 939 million in 2010, in a year characterized by a stalled global
economic recovery, major political changes in the Middle East and
North Africa and natural disasters in Japan.

6. 2. The relative importance of tourism in developing countries
Tourism in many developing and least developed countries is the most viable and
sustainable economic development option, and in some countries, the main source
of foreign exchange earnings. Part of this income trickles down to different
groups of the society and, if tourism is managed with a strong focus on poverty
alleviation, it can directly benefit the poorer groups through employment of local
people in tourism enterprises, goods and services provided to tourists, or the
running of small and community-based enterprises, etc, having positive impacts
on reducing poverty levels.
Tourism in the recent years has been characterized by two main trends; firstly, the
consolidation of traditional tourism destinations, like those in Western Europe and
North America; and secondly, a pronounced geographical expansion. There has
been a substantial diversification of destinations, and many developing countries
have seen their tourist arrivals increase significantly. Arrivals to developing
countries accounted for 46% of the total international arrivals in 2011. Tourism
has become a major player in the economy of developing countries.

7. Reasons which explains why tourism is
particularly well placed to meet the needs of the
poor.
These include:
 The fact that tourism is one of the few industries in which
many developing countries actually have a comparative
advantage over developed countries in terms of cultural
heritage, natural wildlife, climate etc.
 The attractiveness for tourism of some remote rural areas
– which is particularly important, since three quarters of
people in extreme poverty live in rural areas.
 The opportunity to support traditional activities such as
agriculture and handicrafts through tourism.

8. Cntd......
 The fact that tourism is a labour intensive industry,
which can provide jobs for women and young people.
 It is also an industry where entry barriers to
establishing new small businesses can be quite low.
 And leaving aside economics, it can bring non-
material benefits such as pride in local culture and a
valorisation of the surrounding natural environment in
the eyes of local communities.

9. 10 Principles for pursuing poverty
alleviation through tourism (UNWTO)
 All aspects and types of tourism can and should be concerned
about poverty alleviation.
 All governments should include poverty alleviation as a key aim
of tourism development and consider tourism as a possible tool
for reducing poverty.
 The competitiveness and economic success of tourism businesses
and destinations is critical to poverty alleviation – without this
the poor cannot benefit.
 All tourism businesses should be concerned about the impact of
their activities on local communities and seek to benefit the poor
through their actions.
 Tourism destinations should be managed with poverty alleviation
as a central aim that is built into strategies and action plans.

10.  A sound understanding of how tourism functions in
destinations is required, including how tourism income is
distributed and who benefits from this.
 Planning and development of tourism in destinations
should involve a wide range of interests, including
participation and representation from poor communities.
 All potential impacts of tourism on the livelihood of local
communities should be considered, including current
and future local and global impacts on natural and
cultural resources.
 Attention must be paid to the viability of all projects
involving the poor, ensuring access to markets and
maximising opportunities for beneficial links with
established enterprises.
 Impacts of tourism on poverty alleviation should be
effectively monitored.

11. CONCLUSION
Tourism is one of the strongest drivers of world trade and
prosperity.
Poverty alleviation is one of the greatest global challenges.
Tourism should not be seen on its own as ‘the answer’ to the
elimination of poverty but it can make a powerful
contribution.
The potential to develop more tourism and to channel a higher
percentage of tourism spending towards the poor may be great
in some areas and quite small in others.
However, given the size of the sector, even small changes in
approach when widely applied can make a significant
difference.