Introduction
Tourism is one of the most popular leisure activities globally. According to international tourism statistics, there were over 940 million global tourist arrivals in 2010. This recorded a 6.6% growth as compared to the year 2009. According to World Tourism Organization’s definition, tourism is the act of travelling for leisure, recreational and business purposes.
In the U.S, tourism contributes to about US$ 2 trillion annually hence; it is highly profitable and important to economic growth of states. Pro-poor tourism in connection to the global tourism helps in reducing poverty in local communities that reside in low-income countries (UNTWO, 2011).
Discussion
Pro-poor tourism is therefore, aimed at helping to improve lives of the poor. It is neither an identified product nor a shallow market recess. Instead, it is an approach to the development and management of tourism. It helps improve connection between businesses that operates in line with tourism and the poor in the society.
For this reason, tourism’s capacity to promote poverty reduction continues to increase, giving the poor in society a chance to contribute constructively in productivity and development.
Businesses that operate in line with tourisms may include landowners, community neighbors, product suppliers, artisans, public transport businesses, food producers among others. Pro-poor tourism in third world countries can also refer to it as a strategy installed to boost local economy for the poor in local community.
Pro-poor tourism strategies vary in many ways. They range from consultation building approaches to enhancing local tourism employment companies. Some of these companies may include tourism lodging companies, urban tourism hotels that can train local dwellers for future opportunities, and tourism travel companies among others.
All these strategies play a vital role in the overall benefit of tourism to poor people. These local tourism strategies brings profit back to the poor local people who gets employments, lease local lands and operate local businesses as a result of pro-poor tourism (Ashley 1).
Due to a rise in the need to ensure success of pro-poor tourism, tourism development centers are set up globally in many countries and states. These centers provide a diverse range of management and development assistance in the sector of pro-poor tourism initiative.
They employ professionals with experienced qualifications in pro-poor tourism management and development to operate these centers. These professional staffs deliver pro-poor tourism services to local community in the following fields:
Pro-poor tourism projects feasibility study
This field may include services such as assisting the local people in making precise decisions at the early phases of pro-poor tourism activities. It ensures that local communities employ important decisions in the entire development stages (Lotti 1).
Pro-poor tourism Development
This ensures the success of t pro- poor tourism by supporting sustainable growth. To achieve this growth, a lasting productive foundation must be established to promote local community and tourism service providers to benefit from the improving living standards. The pro-poor tourism development staffs assist local communities in different areas to identify and find tourism capacity of their surroundings.
This approach promotes process of integrated tourism, which is usually directed towards support of natural environment (ecotourism) within the local, regional, and global community (African Pro-poor Tourism Development Centre 1).
Pro-poor tourism marketing
This field plays a key role in marketing pro-poor tourism ventures and organizations. It assists participants who are committed in the line of pro-poor tourism to boost sales, tourist arrivals, or organize for tourism marketing plans. It also equips communities with the knowledge to analyze profitable tourism ventures within their surroundings (Shah 1).
Conclusion
Pro- poor tourism sector is on rapid growth globally. It therefore, requires a responsive development to yield diverse job creation opportunities and deployments for the growing population. For many years, tourism has been of great benefit and economic gain to urban people when local communities remain in the dark to pay for its cost. This is majorly experienced in rural set up and some developing regions across the world (UNTWO 1).
Works Cited
African Pro-poor Tourism Development Centre. “What is pro-poor tourism (PPT)?” propoortourism-kenya.org. 2006. Web.
Ashley, Caroline. “Facilitating Pro-Poor Tourism with the Private Sector: Lessons learned from PPT Pilots in Southern Africa”. propoortourism.org.uk. 2006. Web.
Lotti, Marialivia. “What is pro-poor tourism?” propoortourism.org.uk. 2011. Web.
Shah, Kishore. “Tourism, the poor and other stakeholders: Asian experience”. ODI Fair-Trade in Tourism Paper. London: ODI, 2000.
UNTWO. “World Tourism Organization”. mkt.unwto.org. 2011. Web.