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Poverty
Alleviation through Tourism |
 March
21, 2007: ACCORDING TO THE WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE, at
the beginning of 1990 tourism was growing at a rate of 4% a
year. Between 1990 and 2002, International tourist arrivals
increased by 54% globally, and the World Tourism
Organization estimates that tourist arrivals will exceed 1
billion worldwide by the year 2010. There is a significant
body of information to support the view that tourism is one
of the world's fastest growing industries. As an industry,
tourism is multidimensional in nature, and it is still in
the embryonic stage of development.
There are several different types of tourism activity, often
characterised by the specific interests of the tourists
themselves. These range from special interest tourism such
as culture, nature, religious and event tourism to name a
few, to the more general mass tourism.
Ecotourism, a form of nature tourism, is reported to be one
of the most rapidly increasing segments of the tourism
industry. Though the figures on ecotourism are difficult to
compile, the WTO estimates that global spending on
ecotourism as increasing steadily by 20% per year,
approximately five times the growth rate of the tourism
industry as a whole.
The increased demand for ecotourism can be attributed in
part to the wave of global environmental consciousness.
During the last 10 years, studies show a shift in
preferences for nature based destinations in developing
countries over the traditional European destinations.
Ecotourism, defined as "Responsible travel to natural areas
that conserves the environment and sustains the well being
of local people" is nature based, supports the well being of
local communities, and promotes local ownership. It also
aims to minimise negative socio-cultural and environmental
impacts, and contributes to biodiversity conservation. These
key principles make ecotourism one of the more desirable
types of tourism activity, as they are related to the issue
of sustainability, which should be the objective of the
tourism industry in general, but even more so of ecotourism.
Ecotourism is also the type of tourism that presents some of
the best opportunities, when compared to other sectors, for
the direct and long term economic impacts on poor
communities.
Globally about 1.2 billion people are living in extreme
poverty. Poverty is a central theme in the Millennium
Development goals agreed to by 191 UN Member States. The
umbrella target is to "halve the proportion of people living
on less than a dollar per day by 2015". Even modest earnings
from tourism make a significant impact on the welfare of
beneficiaries in Lesser Developed countries (LDC's) Land
Locked developing countries (LLDC's) and Small Island
Developing States (SIDS) .
While the tourism industry presents excellent opportunities
for poverty alleviation, some of the major challenges are to
match tourism receipts to the high rate of tourism arrivals
and to deliver direct benefits to the poor.
There are a number of issues that must be considered in
addressing poverty alleviation through tourism. Key amongst
these are: partnerships development between government, non
government, private and international bodies; empowering the
poor and creating access to opportunities in the industry;
reducing leakages and improving linkages with other sectors
and monitoring the economic impact of the industry.
A major challenge is in integrating tourism with other
sectors to reduce leakages and improve linkages. The success
in reducing leakages will be measured by the ability of the
community to provide goods and services (formally and
informally) for the tourism supply chain. The direct
economic impact of tourist spending is compromised when
businesses have to obtain goods and services from outside
the area, thus creating "leakage" from the economy.
Unfortunately many tourism projects have a high rate of
leakage.
The price of taking the unsustainable path in tourism
development is too high for developing countries in
particular to afford. Over the past two decades ecotourism
has shown promise as an important catalyst for biodiversity
conservation and sustainable development. It is hoped that a
collaborative approach to sustainability will transform
ecotourism into a dynamic force for change in sustainable
development.
Ms. Jasmin Garraway is the Sustainable Tourism Director of
the Association of Caribbean States.
The views expressed are not necessarily the official views
of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to:
mail@acs-aec.org
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