Criterios de Pago

The majority of countries in SEA are developing countries where tourism contributes significantly to the country’s total GDP. The tourism scheme is designed to conserve local traditions sustainably, which can draw globetrotters to experience the exoticism of diverse races found in this region. All policy institutions, including local authorities, international agencies and donor organisations, closely monitor poverty reduction via strategic tourism, as mentioned above. This has been successful in terms of increasing income for poor residents of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (Sapa, Vietnam; Siem Reap, Cambodia; Mae Kompong, Thailand; Luang Prabang, Laos PDR6) and the study of PPT. Increases in employment and income from tourism products has contributed to the increase in GDP for the shared nations. The extent of benefits from PPT that can be experienced by these people in their livelihoods depends on whether activities are based on profit or asset generation and whether they involve local ownership. Community participation, as opposed to central government-initiated activities, can provide either direct or indirect tourism services. Hotels, local restaurants and related personnel employments are considered direct services, whereas local produce and handicrafts sold are indirect services. The issue needs to take into account the previous PPT in SEA; related to the PPT study in Bulon are unequal benefits, barriers to local in participation and infrastructure, business development and resources

79 Firstly, regarding unequal benefits accruing from PPT, Anuchitworawong, Panpiemras and Pupphavesa (2007), who wrote the case study in Thailand, state that tourism should lead to equality of income. However, the study indicates tourism leads to greater inequality, as the industry fails to help the wider population. Therefore, it may be that while the notion of PPT is attractive, the expected benefits may not occur in reality. A further problem is that, while providing a wide range of attractions would be the best way of spreading the benefits of tourism might be anticipated, the poor are more likely to benefit when the number of attractions is limited. Additionally, income inequality is more prevalent in communities in which power and knowledge are held by a small number of people; therefore, it is clear why tourism has failed to reduce inequality here. It was also found that activities based on eco-tourism were not particularly successful, even though the community participated and the decision-making processes were relatively transparent.

It has been argued that while tourism may only benefit a handful of the poor in a given area, educated and relatively wealthy members of society are able to derive much greater benefits from tourism (Ballard, 2005); therefore, tourism may actually exacerbate the income gap. One possible reason for this is the greater diversity of tourism activities in the three areas examined in Thailand (Sapa, Siem Reap and Yunnan). In Sapa, for example, Dung et al. (2007) note that the groups benefitting most from tourism are the wealthier ones. Those whose economic position in a community is already established are more likely to be recipients of jobs; in Sapa, the poor found it very difficult to find employment within the tourism sector. The implication, therefore, is that the poor would be more severely affected by any shock to the tourism sector.

Secondly, there are barriers to locals participating in the tourism industry. The difficulties faced in terms of human resources are explained by Dung et al. (2007) and Sokphally and Vutha (2007), who mention a lack of business skills and education, along with inadequate access to capital assets. All simple tourism-related businesses, which are common sources of income for the poor (such as homestays and handicrafts, or transport and food), require investment at the start-up stage, thereby excluding the poorest members of society. Tourism in poor locales still requires locals to have certain basic social skills and, in the case of homestays, a

80 suitable minimum living standard to share. In the Vietnamese town of Sapa, it has been observed that homestays employ the greatest share of local people from the surrounding villages. However, the main relationships are between homestay providers and tour operators rather than homestay providers and the community (Dung et al., 2007); therefore, tour operators derive far greater benefits than the rest of the community. Interestingly, in contrast to the case in Siem Reap where much of the workforce comes from further afield (Sokphally & Vutha, 2007), local service providers in Sapa often cannot speak Vietnamese. This is because they come from the local ethnic minority; moreover, the study in Laos also comments upon infrastructural issues, noting that transportation links are helpful to migrant workers since they have greater ease of access, whilst also permitting greater tourist numbers. However, Zheng (2007). focuses upon the barriers resulting from government practices and management, especially those pertaining to property rights. It can be concluded that the involvement of the community has been a significant factor in developing PPT in SEA. It is therefore very important that information is shared among the communities and that the costs and benefits of tourism are carefully analysed before proceeding with any tourism-related projects.

Leadership is cited as a vital aspect of successful community participation, whilst it is also claimed that leadership from the community can assist in developing good relationships with the government and investors (Zheng, 2007). It is clear, especially in Yunnan, that it is difficult to succeed with community tourism if the community is not fully involved. When schemes are badly managed and villagers do not participate, the projects are rarely attractive to foreign visitors. In cases where villagers have alternative income sources, such as the cultivation of rubber, they do not need to participate in the tourist industry for financial reasons. Success depends on clear understanding of the costs and the benefits of cooperation, with communities committing to support tourism projects and to fair distribution of benefits. Careful planning and the support of relevant government agencies are essential.

81 Thirdly, regarding the infrastructure, business development and resources, the importance of good transport to tourist locations along the Mekong is clearly demonstrated. The poor will benefit from better transport links, with tourism profits being more evenly distributed as a result. Local people in Bulon benefit from the improvement of the Pakbara pier, which is used for both commercial and non- commercial acticities, as well as development of communication services on the island.

As stated previously, many of the case studies show the poor fail to participate in tourism because of a lack of the skills required for employment and capital assets. Therefore, it can be argued that government must intervene to support the development of human resources and to ensure the poor develop skills. Vocational training can prepare young people for work in tourism but it is important that such education is available to the poorest people. To address issues of financial capital, it may be necessary to make credit more easily available to small enterprises. Lower interest rates and greater flexibility might be granted to small businesses employing or training the poor and loans being given to poor households. Group lending or micro-borrowing schemes could be introduced with assistance from NGOs to support tourism in poor communities. Any mainstream tourist development plans must offer support to the poor, increasing their participation.

Summaries of the case studies in SEA and other poverty reduction programmes show that benefits often go to locals; however, such programmes are not implemented in areas of extreme poverty (Ballard, 2005; Anuchitworawong, Panpiemras and Pupphavesa, 2007; Dung et al., 2007; Leebouapao et al., 2007, Sokphally & Vuttha, 2007; Zheng, 2007). These studies show that tourism benefits some local poor households but can be different in each country. Increases in livelihoods was not as expected or planned; therefore, it may be concluded that GMS tourism policies delivered insufficient benefit to the poor, as indicated by four reasons.

Firstly, tourist spending in the SEA region mainly involved direct services (such as hotel accommodation and transportation), which were often owned by the relatively economically well-equipped. In contrast, the poor undertook low-paid jobs and services due to a lack of competitive skills and assets. Secondly, tourism was

82 unevenly distributed between urban and rural areas. Most tourism services stayed in the urban areas rather than in rural areas where most poor ethnic minorities live. Thirdly, tourism planning depended heavily on statistical analysis of goods and service spending from the tourism side rather than focusing on analysis of income for the locals. Lastly, the poor lacked skills and social readiness to meet the expectations of visitors, especially international travellers. This reflected their limited education and access to capital to earn such skills.

Overall, sufficient evidence indicates the relationship between tourism and poverty reduction needs to be revisited. One strategy may be to implement the current model of PPT with more appropriate than another, the main agendum is to integrate PPT into the core of development planning. Planning for pro-poor poverty reduction needs to shift from being a by-product of tourism to be the heart of tourism strategies.

3.10 Conclusion

This chapter has clearly shown there is potential for tourism to contribute to poverty reduction; however, the literature suggests that the analyses of tourism role and how to place it in relation to poverty reduction need careful analysis from a holistic perspective.

This chapter also discussed the conceptualisation of Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) and Sustainable Tourism in Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP), as alternative forms of tourism that have strong focus on tourism poverty reduction and are considered a means of economic growth. PPT is defined as tourism that generates and promotes net benefits for the poor and particularly focuses on developing opportunities for the poor who are involved in tourism, rather than encompassing the whole tourism sector; accordingly, the benefit for the poor can be both financial and non-financial.

While ST-EP presented by UNWTO moved beyond the country’s GDP or macroeconomic measures, placing the emphasis on inputs at a local level, the focus is on tourism in order to provide employment opportunities for local people. The ST- EP concept also aims to be one of the tools to fulfil the MDGs that ended in 2015 and remain unmet, as well as providing continuity for the new SDGs. They have been succeeded by the seventeen-goal plan of the SDGs, which view tourism as one

83 of the most dynamic economic sectors and hope to be one of the mechanisms that will make significant changes and contribute to the achievement of SDGs, especially goal number eight to promote sustained and sustainable economic growth. Goal number twelve aims to support sustainable tourism in order to promote local culture and create jobs. Finally, goal fourteen is for tourism to conserve and sustain the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, as well as increasing the economic benefits of SIDs and LDCs, including sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.

This chapter also presented the Sustainable livelihoods approach in a tourism context, where case studies of SLA in different destinations are discussed, especially for communities that seem to have a high degree of vulnerability, such as Bulon. For SLA to be applied in Bulon, the factors of nature resources, economic, social and human assets should be taken into account and place local people at the centre. In order to see different perspectives, the PPT case studies on SEA are also analysed here, where the focus is on destinations similar to Bulon.

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CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4.1 Introduction

After reviewing the literature (Chapters Two and Three), it is now possible for the researcher to present this chapter, which considers the research methods and design required for this research to achieve its aims and objectives. The first section presents the methodological approaches, followed by sampling techniques, the research process and data collection.