Tourism and Poverty

Tourism and Poverty addresses a critical question facing many academics, governments, aid agencies, tourism organizations, and conservation bodies around the world: can tourism work as a tool to overcome poverty? This book is the first to present a focused description and critique of the issues surrounding poverty and tourism. Relying on a wealth of primary data on tourism, Regina Scheyvens supports her findings with novel case studies such as innovative partnerships between resorts and fledgling indigenous businesses in Fiji, Oxfam’s work to connect the agriculture and tourism sectors in the Caribbean, and difficulties in alleviating poverty in the Maldives despite the growth of luxury tourism. This book will challenge the way academics and tourism professionals understand the current and potential role of tourism in alleviating poverty.

Regina Scheyvens heads the Institute of Development Studies at Massey University, New Zealand. Here she combines a passion for teaching about international development with research on tourism and development. In 2002 she published Tourism for Development: Empowering Communities, and she has written articles on themes such as backpacker tourism, ecotourism, and sustainable tourism.