Key principles and strategies for pro-poor tourism

Some underlying principles for pro-poor tourism

• Pro-poor strategies need to be complemented by the development of wider tourism infrastructure. A balanced approach is critical – if competitive products, transport systems or marketing do not exist, the industry will decline and so will any pro-poor strategy;
• Pro-poor principles apply to any tourism segment, though specific strategies will vary between, for example, mass tourism and wildlife tourism;
• Focus on expanding benefits, not just minimising costs to the poor;
  
• Draw on lessons from other sectors (such as small enterprise, good governance, and poverty analysis) and apply these to tourism;
  
• Involve businesses in development initiatives and be commercially realistic;
  
• Do not expect all the poor to benefit equally, particularly the poorest 20 per cent. Some will lose;
  
• Learn by doing – the effectiveness of pro-poor strategies is not proven, but we won't know what can be done to reduce poverty through tourism until more concerted efforts are made.
  

Combining national and local strategies

A range of strategies are needed to promote pro-poor tourism, at the local destination, national/policy level, and the international level.

A destination focus is ideal for practical measures to maximise benefits for the poor within a specific area (e.g. coastal zone, district/region, island, city, valley/mountain). Pro-active initiatives can bring government, communities, NGOs and business together to stimulate economic linkages, local participation and partnerships. However, practical action usually needs to be accompanied by a supportive policy framework.

National/policy-level interventions may be needed on issues ranging from planning and policy objectives, licensing and registration systems, tenure laws, tourism training, business incentives/regulation and infrastructural development. Development of pro-poor tourism requires a strong planning framework and government commitment. If this exists, small changes in rules can have a significant effect on implementation and impacts.

Words of Caution

As we all know only too well the law of unintended consequences continues to operate resulting in the road to hell being paved with good intentions. These words of caution are based on experience of what can, and often does, go wrong. The cautions below are in a random order, they are all serious if they result in reduced livelihoods for economically poor people.

It is not a good idea, in a valley with few tourists, to encourage several households in adjacent villages to borrow money to create facilities for tourists and to teach them to make pizzas, when there is no suitable flour in the valley, and no tourists to sell the pizzas to.

Remember that the time of the economically poor is not for free - they survive by a whole range of livelihood activities - they do not necessarily have free time.

If you have other examples of the law of unintended consequences please share them with us so that we reduce the number of mistakes being made. Contact us.

• Think carefully about whether or not there is adequate local demand from visitors to create a viable market.
• Beware of making the economically poor producers dependent on tourism. Encourage producers to develop tourism as an additional source of income, the net benefit is larger if they add tourism to their current earnings.
• Address the issue of price, consistency of supply and quality and health and safety standards. Be clear with poor producers what standards need to be met and why
• Beware of outsourcing to poor producers in order merely to cut costs – there is no net benefit in outsourcing in-house laundry jobs if the wages of the new employees are lower than those of the existing staff and the existing staff are made redundant – avoid creating new economically poor people.

• Avoid a situation developing where skilled labour is attracted out of education, health or government because the wages paid in tourism are higher than those for professionals in other sectors. Wages need to be good, but avoid distorting the local labour market.
• There are limits to how much labour existing enterprises can employ whilst remaining profitable and little is gained if the employment of the poor pushes others into poverty through unemployment.
• Consider how seasonality affects casual and part-time workers and how this relates to their other livelihood activities, try to work with them to ensure that engaging in tourism does not mean that they are unable to continue to pursue other livelihood strategies.
• Spread the benefits amongst a number of households of the economically poor. Do not employ staff from only a few households as that increases their vulnerability by making tourism a major element of their household income rather than adding to their existing range of income and subsistence activities.
• Avoid raising the expectations of the poor. Be sure about the market at a given price and quality and then begin the process of creating appropriate supply, clear in the knowledge about what the market will purchase.

• If goods and services are developed for which there is no local demand the initiative will fail, if the supply exceeds demand then prices will fall. The initiative will fail to make the anticipated contribution to local incomes and if the community has borrowed money in anticipation of selling to tourists then financial ruin is a real risk.

• Excessive competition between producers can drive prices down - do not develop too much supply of one product, encourage a diversity of goods and services.

• Do not promise more than you can deliver and manage expectations. Partnerships can fall apart when expectations are very high and delivery is very slow.
• The community needs exposure to what makes tourism work –or not work. And they need tangible benefits from making their area welcoming for tourists.
• Do not encourage the economically poor to take on debt, particulalry of they secure the loans on their land. It is easy to make the poor destitute.