Poverty changes and decomposition in tourism communities in China

Abstract

The relationship between tourism and poverty has been explored extensively by academics. However, the existing literature has not yet fully explored the changes in poverty and the causes of poverty in tourism communities, and this article contributes to addressing this issue. The article uses data from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) to measure and identify poverty in tourism communities and to quantitatively decompose poverty change. The study finds that the absolute poverty incidence in tourism communities is higher than the national average, and the relative poverty incidence shows a trend of “expanding-shrinking-expanding” during 2010–2018. Using the “growth-distribution” decomposition framework of poverty index changes to study the causes of poverty in tourism communities, the article finds that while the growth component can bring about a sustained poverty reduction effect, it is the distribution effect that determines the direction of poverty index changes in tourism communities. The article further decomposes the growth and distribution components of poverty and finds that, in addition to the income factor, the contribution of outwork is greater in the growth and distribution components. These results reveal new findings on poverty change in tourism communities, which are important for the current research on tourism poverty reduction.