The Development Impacts of Tourism Supply Chains: Increasing Impact on Poverty and Decreasing Our Ignorance - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 105

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The Development Impacts of Tourism
Supply Chains: Increasing Impact on
Poverty and Decreasing Our Ignorance
Caroline Ashley and Gareth Haysom
Purpose and scope of the chapter
Poor people may earn as much income by supplying goods and services to the
tourism sector as they do from working directly in tourism itself. But supply
chains are less visible, participation by the poor less understood, and there has
been less attention paid to making procurement pro-poor than to other forms of
pro-poor tourism action. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the operation
of tourism supply chains, and the potential for pro-poor impact.
This chapter starts by presenting data on the importance of supply chains to
the poor based on the limited evidence that is currently available. It briefly
outlines some of the types of initiatives that have been taken internationally to
make supply chains more pro poor. In this context, the core of the chapter is an
exploration of a case study from Spier Leisure (Western Cape of South Africa)
of the company's intensive three-year investment in assessing and reforming
procurement from a sustainable development and pro-poor perspective. Spier's
approach to, and results from, a survey of their supply chains are presented.
Although it is just one case study, it illustrates the importance of understanding
how supply chains are constructed and operate, if efforts at reform are to be
effective. Lessons from Spier's process of assessing and reforming the supply
chain are drawn out.