Pro-Poor Mountain Tourism

This timely and interdisciplinary book is the first to examine mountain tourism and local communities with a pro-poor lens. By drawing on human geography, political and social science, ethics and moral philosophy and empirical research, the volume explores how mountain tourism can be used to fight poverty and inequality in mountain regions.

Mountain tourism represents a growing mass tourism phenomenon. The local population, recognizing the possibilities for increased income, started to develop in situ services. However, sensitive to outside influences, the environment of high-altitude mountain areas resident communities have been abruptly exposed to impacts from mountain tourism-related activities, although until recently, they have been cut off from civilization. The natural environment and people living in mountain regions have been affected by an increasing number of visitors in the last few decades. Hence, this book provides an expert-led and comprehensive summary of mountain tourism development and illustrates how tourism can increase benefits for the poor within local communities. Furthermore, it presents updated management and governance policies.

This volume will be of pivotal interest to scholars and practitioners from the fields of geography and tourism studies, ethics, and development economics, as well as policymakers, aid agencies, and general readers interested in sustainable development in mountain regions.

Michal Apollo is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences, the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, and a Fellow of Yale University's Global Justice Program, New Haven, USA. Michal is an enthusiastic researcher, traveller, mountaineer, ultra-runner, diver, photographer, and science populariser. Michal's unique background allows him to integrate knowledge from the perspectives of various points of view into his research and consultancy work. His areas of expertise are tourism management, consumer behaviours well as environmental and socio-economical issues. In his main research field, he focuses on human presence in high mountain regions and their wellbeing. Currently, he is working on a concept of sustainable use of environmental and human resources, as this is a key to the development, prosperity and wellbeing of all stakeholders. Michal is a board member of the Academics Stand Against Poverty.

Yana Wengel is an Associate Professor at the Hainan University - Arizona State University International Tourism College based in Hainan University, China. Yana takes a critical approach to tourism studies, and her interests include volunteer tourism, non-profit tourism, tourism in developing economies, creative methodologies and mountain tourism. She has an interest in creative qualitative tools for data collection and stakeholder engagement. Yana is a co-founder of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® research community.

Thomas Pogge is a Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs and founding Director of the Global Justice Program at Yale University, USA. Thomas Pogge is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science, as well as co-founder of Academics, Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international network aiming to enhance the impact of scholars, teachers and students on global poverty, and of Incentives for Global Health, a team effort toward developing a complement to the pharmaceutical patent regime that would improve access to advanced medicines for the poor worldwide. Pogge has published widely on Immanuel Kant and in moral and political philosophy, including various books on Rawls and global justice.