The Impact of Pro-Poor Tourism on Developing Communities: A Report

This report delves into the impact of pro-poor tourism on developing communities, emphasizing its role in poverty reduction and economic growth. It begins by defining pro-poor tourism and outlining its working principles, including strategies for balancing competitive market principles with community benefits. The report then presents statistics on the significance of tourism for developing nations, followed by case studies of South Africa and the Dominican Republic. The South Africa section highlights the country's use of its attractions to generate foreign currency, job creation, and poverty alleviation, while the Dominican Republic case study focuses on community tourism projects and the role of the private sector. The conclusion underscores the importance of pro-poor tourism for underdeveloped nations and summarizes the benefits discussed throughout the report, along with references to relevant literature and sources.

The impact that pro-
poor tourism has on
communities

Table of Contents
The impact that pro-poor tourism has on communities...................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Working of Pro-poor tourism...........................................................................................................1
Statistics of how much tourism benefits the communities...............................................................2
Significance of tourism in South Africa..........................................................................................3
Benefits of Pro-poor tourism in South Africa........................................................................4
Significance of tourism in Dominican Republic’s Coastal Areas...................................................4
Benefits of Pro-poor tourism in Dominican Republic’s Coastal Areas.................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is often identified as one of the leading and fast growing industries across the
globe and thus, it focuses on developing both the responsibilities and opportunities within the
nation. Tourism industry within an economy makes a strong, positive and significant difference
in the nature and livelihoods of people. The said industry generates tremendous advantages to the
local communities only if it focuses to bring employment, sustainable livelihoods along with
additional incomes (Truong, 2015). With regard to this fact, pro-poor tourism has gained
significant importance and has become one of the famous holidays in travel and tourism
industry. It is described as an approach that uses tourism as a generic and strategic tool to reduce
the overall level of poverty in the developing nations. Considering this, the present report will
highlight the crucial impacts that pro-poor tourism has on developing communities.
Working of Pro-poor tourism
Key strategies and principles for pro-poor tourism working involve the following-
 Pro-poor strategies are required to be complemented by the overall growth and
development of wider infrastructure of tourism industry. It is important for the said
tourism to maintain an appropriate balance between its competitive product, marketing
principles and transport system in order to gain its winning edge in the vast international
market.
 Pro-poor tourism can be applied to any segment of travel and tourism industry. However,
specific principles and strategies may differ from other tourism such as wildlife tourism
and mass tourism (Meyer, 2010).
 Pro-poor tourism lays its overall concern over expanding the crucial benefits in a
significant as well as effective way and not just reducing the costs and expenses to the
poor.
 The concerned tourism draws appropriate lessons from different sectors such as good
governance, small enterprise, poverty analysis etc. and apply them to its tourism
activities.
 Company belonging to such tourism does not expect to benefit the poor equally instead it
believes that around 20% of the poor will lose.
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 Pro-poor tourism lays its major attention over applying the concept of destination focus
to increase the overall benefits for the local and poor communities (Pro poor tourism,
2016). Pro-active initiatives can help the stated tourism to bring government, NGOs,
business and communities together with a view to stimulate local participation,
partnerships and linkages.
 Policy/National-level interventions are highly required on challenges ranging from policy
objectives to suitable and effective planning, registration and licensing systems, tourism
training, tenure laws, business incentives as well as infrastructural growth and
development.
 In order to develop a strong pro-poor tourism, businesses need to focus on effectively
planning of framework and require positive as well as strong commitment from
government (Briedenhann, 2011).
Statistics of how much tourism benefits the communities
Tourism plays a significant role in the nation's economy and possesses great significance
in developing countries. Economy of small islands that are highly dependent on the activities and
functions of tourism usually tends to such group of people who fall under middle income
category. However, analysis and interpretation of tourism data reveal the fact that tourism of
countries which have high extent of poverty is rapidly growing. Therefore, tourism is a means of
life for a huge crowd of the world's poor population.
International targets aim in reducing the overall number of individuals living in poor
conditions or in poverty by 2015 (Truong, 2014). In order to minimize poverty, exclusive
strategies are required on a variety of scales and complementary fonts. The most vital among all
the strategies for crucial progress includes pro-poor growth which tends to bring significant
growth and benefits to the developing nations.
Mentioned below is the statistics of how much tourism has benefited the developing
nations-
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Illustration 1: Significance of international tourism to poor countries
(Source: Rogerson, 2014)
From the above statistics, it can be said that countries which have gained tremendous
benefits from tourism include the following- Zambia- The overall contribution of country's tourism industry to GDP accounts for
3.9% which has enabled the said nation to increase its employability rates thereby
enhancing the development and growth of country. Growth in demand for the country in
2000 was 3.4% which benefited Zambia to earn huge amount of foreign exchange
currencies in a very effective manner.
 Nepal- Contribution of tourism industry in Nepal accounts to 4.5% to the country's GDP
which reflects a significant amount and helps country to gain considerable foreign
exchange earnings and thereby, maintain its competitive edge in the vast international
economy.
Significance of tourism in South Africa
Sodwana Bay is situated on the eastern coastal region of South Africa between Lake
Sibhayi and St. Lucia. The Bay is famous for its exotic flora and fauna which includes whale
sharks, hammerhead sharks, great white sharks, potato cods and leatherback turtles. This attracts
wide range of visitors from across the globe. South Africa makes use of its exotic and fascinating
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attractions in order to earn high amount of foreign currencies to develop and grow its economy in
a significant and appropriate way.
The country is considered to be a medium income nation where the level of inequality is
highest in the world. The nation also possesses high extent of poverty. In the year 1998, tourism
industry of South Africa contributed to around 8.2% of country's GDP and almost around 7% of
total rate of employment. This was a significant contribution as compared to 2% in 1994.
Therefore, it can be analysed that South Africa has considerably implemented the concept of pro-
poor tourism to enhance and improve its growth and development across the globe (Saarinen,
Rogerson and Manwa, 2013). Tourism is one of the major and essential exports accounting for
around 15% of total exports including inbound visitors who tend to bring significant amount of
foreign exchange earnings directly into the nation's economy. The fast growing tourism market is
strongly balanced by domestic market, which makes South Africa totally different from other
developing nations. Such tourism activities serve the country with wide range of job
opportunities and thereby decrease the overall rate of unemployment as well as poverty. It also
makes the country a beautiful place to visit.
Benefits of Pro-poor tourism in South Africa
Tourism in South Africa has been identified as a priority sector on the grounds of
boosting the level of economy, generation of foreign exchange revenue, job creation, poverty
alleviation and rural development. Furthermore, the country lays its significant concern over
implementing and undertaking the mechanism of responsible tourism in an impressive and
significant way. This benefits the country to attract the visitors and tourists from across the world
and attain strong brand recognition in the vital international economy (Mitchell, 2010).
Significance of tourism in Dominican Republic’s Coastal Areas
Dominican Republic is one of the developing countries in West Indies with wide range of
fascinating and highest peaks along with exotic mountains. All such astonishing sightseeing
catch the eyes of visitors from across the globe. Therefore, tourism sector in Dominican Republic
has shown a rapid increase in its overall growth and development. The said country lays its
major concern over promoting the integration of emerging tourism communities with the
mainstream tourism and with a view to increase the overall level of linkages between various
elements in the tourism sector (Cole and Morgan, 2010). The most important elements include
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government service providers, tourism marketing organisation, broad range of tourism
businesses along with poor communities etc. Apart from this, the country focuses on community
tourism projects which include choral groups, drama groups, arts and crafts groups etc. that
possess maximum and strong potential to enhance value of the tourism sector within the
economy of the nation. On the other hand, the role of private sector in such industry is a key for
impressive development of business skills and successful marketing.
Benefits of Pro-poor tourism in Dominican Republic’s Coastal Areas
Dominican Republic has focused on applying a different concept of pro-poor tourism. It
therefore concerns over the tourism activities that seek to promote and safeguard the interest of
local communities as well as poor people in an impressive and effective way. Doing this helps
the country to improve its structural inequalities in order to tackle the level of poverty and
unemployment within the nation (Roy, Roy and Saha, 2010). Apart from this, Dominican
Republic also lays its concern over examining and analysing the tourism supply chain
relationship with the nation's economy. The said country applies the concept of sustainable
tourism in addition with the responsible tourism to attract visitors from across the globe and
multiply its foreign exchange revenue generation in a significant and effective way.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that pro-poor tourism has gained a rapid
growth in the recent years. The said tourism has developed tremendous opportunities for the
underdeveloped or developing nations to effectively and impressively gain a strong and positive
brand recognition. The report helps to gain understanding about the importance of pro-poor
tourism in South Africa and Dominican Republic along with the benefits which these countries
have got from such tourism activities. Furthermore, the report has also enabled to gain deep
learning about the working of pro-poor tourism along with the statistics of how much tourism
has benefited the communities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Briedenhann, J., 2011. The potential of small tourism operators in the promotion of pro-poor
tourism. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management. 20(3-4). pp.484-500.
Cole, S. and Morgan, N., 2010. Tourism and inequality: Problems and prospects. CABI.
Meyer, D., 2010. 10 Pro-poor Tourism–Can Tourism Contribute to Poverty Reduction in Less
Economically Developed Countries?. Tourism and inequality: Problems and prospects,
p.164.
Mitchell, J., 2010. An unconventional but essential marriage: pro-poor tourism and the
mainstream industry. Private Sector Development, p.3.
Rogerson, C. M., 2014. Informal sector business tourism and pro-poor tourism: Africa’s migrant
entrepreneurs. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 5(16 ). p.153.
Roy, P. B., Roy, T. B. and Saha, S. U. K. A. N. T. A., 2010. Pro–poor tourism as an approach
towards community development: A case study. South Asian Journal of Tourism and
Heritage. 3(2). pp.90-98.
Saarinen, J., Rogerson, C. M. and Manwa, H., 2013. Tourism and the Millennium Development
Goals: Tourism, local communities and development. Routledge.
Truong, D., 2015. Pro-poor tourism. Need ebooks? Visit www. pdfbook. co. ke today and
download thousands of ebooks in pdf format. p.127.
Truong, V.D., 2014. Pro-poor tourism: Looking backward as we move forward. Tourism
Planning & Development. 11(2). pp.228-242.
Online
Pro poor tourism. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.propoortourism.info/Processes.html>. [Accessed On 25th may 2016].
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