Pro-Poor Tourism and Local Practices: An Empirical Study of an Autonomous County in China

Abstract

Pro-poor tourism increases net benefits for the poor or directs profits back into the community by employing local staff and manufacturing. Existing studies have provided a theoretical understanding of how pro-poor tourism can produce environmental, economic, social, and cultural impacts. Little research has been conducted on the power dynamics that are specific to pro-poor tourism, especially in developing countries. This study contributes to pro-poor tourism theory from an operation-level perspective by addressing the alignment and coordination of three stakeholders—local governments, tourism enterprises, and community residents—involved in implementing pro-poor tourism in an ethnic, autonomous county in southern China. The results indicate that in the absence of effective cooperation between the three major stakeholders in strategic tourism development aimed at poverty alleviation, substantially greater benefits will not be delivered to the poor. The findings of this study offer important insights into the roles that stakeholders could play at various stages of sustainable development in the long run. This study can also provide useful information to governments for policy replacements and adjustments.