Tourism and the Poor: Analysing and Interpreting Tourism Statistics from a Poverty Perspective
Summary:
This paper is intended to assist development professionals in assessing
the scale and relevance of tourism to economic development in developing
countries. How should national and international data on tourism be interpreted
from a development perspective? What are the caveats and myths that need
to be taken into account, and what further information is needed? There
is a wealth of data on tourism, but little is accessible to non-tourism
specialists, and most focuses on growth trends in the industry, rather
than its contribution to development in poor countries. The aim of this
paper is to help to address a number of key questions of relevance to
development professionals including:
- What share of the tourism market is captured by developing countries?
- Which developing countries are major international destinations?
- In which developing countries is it a major contributor to economic development?
- How
important is tourism to the 'poorest' countries - whether defined by
GNP per capita or poverty lines?
Communication
