Tourism and Poverty Reduction - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 120

movie Slumdog Millionaire , set in Dharavi, Mumbai. Other tourists are
attracted to the 'cheap' holiday which is possible in poorer countries, over-
looking the fact that their 'great deal' is due to the low price of labour, lack
of unionisation and poor labour rights (Scheyvens, 2011: 89-90).
While acknowledging the concerns of those coming from a critical per-
spective, some scholars have suggested that tourism can contribute to devel-
opment if it is approached in an alternative way (Smith & Eadington, 1992).
Indicative of early publications in this field was Dernoi's (1981) 'Alternative
tourism: towards a new style in North-South relations'. Support for alterna-
tive tourism was 'driven by “a sense of outrage” over the misuse of nature,
the costs of materialism and the loss of culture in tourism destinations' (de
Kadt, 1990: abstract).
Alternative approaches to tourism as a means of development and pov-
erty alleviation are informed by a number of bodies of thinking. Alternative
development perspectives centre on grass-roots development and embrace
ideas on participation, equity, gender-sensitivity and empowerment (Telfer,
2002). Timothy (2007: 203) shows how decentralising decision-making
power by empowering 'people locally on the ground' can lead to more effec-
tive development outcomes. Cole (2006) and Sofield (2003) also apply
empowerment to their analysis of tourism and development, arguing that it
is a key to achieving sustainable tourism. Incorporating the above ideas,
alternative approaches to tourism generally support small-scale or locally-
based tourism initiatives which attempt to bring benefits to poorer commu-
nities, minimise harm to the environment and to local communities, and
aim to build good relationships between 'hosts' and 'guests' (Krippendorf,
1987). They also support the notion that local residents should play an active
role in tourism planning and decision-making forums (Murphy, 1985), and
support tourism that is fair, just and equitable (Scheyvens, 2002b).
Alternative development perspectives have provided a strong critique of
forms of tourism dominated by outside interests and offered some viable
alternative ideas on tourism development which is more in line with local
interests. They have been less effective, however, in tackling the need for
change in the most important market: mass tourism. This is where PPT is
said to have considerable potential.
Emergence of Pro-poor Tourism
Given the strength and vigour of the critique of tourism discussed above,
it is fascinating to see how there has been a concerted push towards a rever-
sal of this thinking in recent years, partly inspired by some of the alternative
tourism thinking but also going beyond this, and coinciding with the devel-
opment industry's global focus, from the 1990s, on poverty alleviation. This
will be discussed below.