Abstract
Livelihoods in rural Southeast Asia are widely divergent, but often characterized by a reduced role for agriculture and local natural resources. The diverse components of an expanding tourism industry can provide opportunities for rural households seeking more diversified livelihood strategies. Artisans Angkor is a tourism social enterprise employing over 800 artisans in rural Cambodia. This study analysed the benefits of formal employment with Artisans Angkor by studying one village where six long-term Artisans Angkor employees lived, and comparing their situations with those of their direct peers. While income levels were often similar, significant benefits related to safe working conditions, social insurance and above all enabling young households to live together at home. This study provides insights into how qualitative research can contribute contextualized understandings of tourism employment’s livelihood effects.
Highlights
The rapid expansion of tourism into less developed country settings in recent decades has generated substantial economic, social and environmental impacts
An exploration of the specific, concrete impacts of working for the tourism social enterprises (TSEs) Artisans Angkor in Doun On village are explored as a case of tourism impacts on rural livelihoods in Southeast Asia
Our results show all of our respondents agreeing that workers with the tourism social enterprise (TSE) Artisans Angkor have better livelihoods than their direct peers
Summary
The rapid expansion of tourism into less developed country settings in recent decades has generated substantial economic, social and environmental impacts. TSE research has focused on organizational forms and effectiveness (Dahles et al 2020; von der Weppen/Cochrane 2012) or conceptual frameworks (Aquino et al 2018). As such it has tended not to focus empirically on the social impacts of the enterprises, but has instead used the winning of international awards (von der Weppen/Cochrane 2012) or successful establishment in tourism markets (Biddulph 2018) to identify cases and has to some degree taken industry reports of social
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