A Study of the Mechanisms of Path Dependency in Tourism Poverty Alleviation Based on Grounded Theory —Taking Guangxi as an example

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study applies grounded theory to explore path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation and constructs a model of the mechanisms of path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation in China. We find that path dependency mainly manifests at the levels of the government, tourism enterprises, and residents living in poverty, and it can be classified into cognitive path dependency; economic path dependency; institutional path dependency and technical path dependency. This study also finds that the formation of path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation is a long-term process. Different types of path dependency may have different effects on tourism poverty alleviation performance. In the face of non-optimal path dependency that may exert negative impacts, we recommend breaking through path dependency to achieve path creation.