Abstract
Tourism continues to be a major activity in India, which inevitably produces economic, political, social, cultural and ecological consequences. In India, Tourism has created employment opportunities for airline executives, hotel sales managers, structural engineers, city planners, horticulturists, computer programmers, artisans, textiles workers, etc. In spite of its growth, it has not reached out to the masses because the net benefits accrue only to a limited segment of the society, to say, big business agents. It is an imperative duty of the so-called richer class to reach out the benefits directly to the Pro-Poor People who are actually working into the tourism sector day and night. Thus, Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) is tourism that results in increased net benefits for poor people or marginalized section of the society. The aim of this paper is to explore the prospects and challenges of ‘pro-poor tourism strategies’ and its significance in poverty reduction by generating employment in handicraft sector of Varanasi in order to identify useful lessons and good practice for livelihood and capacity building, leadership and community development for sustainable development.
Highlights
World over tourism has emerged as one of the priorities of governments as a sector with immense potential for economic development, employment generation thereby reducing poverty
Has Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) increased any jobs in Handicraft sector
Occupational Impact * Has PPT increased any jobs in Handicraft sector
Summary
World over tourism has emerged as one of the priorities of governments as a sector with immense potential for economic development, employment generation thereby reducing poverty. Various international agencies like the World Tourism Organization (WTO) have pointed out the vast developmental potential of tourism, with reference to the developing nations, like India. It is widely recognized that economies like India and China would emerge as the superpowers in world tourism in the 20 years or so. In the year 2006, the foreign tourists’ arrivals in India (4.45 million) have been almost doubled that of 1996 (2.29 million), while the earnings have almost tripled during the period, from Rs. 10046 Crore to Rs. 29604 Crore. Definition of Tourism, Pro-poor tourism & poverty In line with the above increasing trend, for the seven months’ period January to July 2007 the provisional figures stand at 2.76 million as against 2.47 for the corresponding period of 2006.
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