Tourism: A Vehicle for Development? - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 26

Table 1.5 Per capita GNI country classifi cations, 2014

Low income
economies

Lower-middle
income
economies

Upper-middle
income
economies

High income
economies Non
OECD

Per capita GNI $1,035 or less $1,036-$4,085 $4,086-$12,615 $12,616 or above

Number of
countries
in group

36 48 55 44

Source: Adapted from World Bank data.

(2) Human resource weaknesses based on indicators of: (a) nutrition: percent-
age of population undernourished; (b) health: mortality rate for children
aged five years or under; (c) education: the gross secondary school enrol-
ment ratio; and (d) adult literacy rate.
(3) Economic vulnerability based upon a complex combination of a number of
indicators, such as the instability of agricultural production and the rela-
tive economic importance of non-traditional activities, which comprise
an economic vulnerability index.

Referred to elsewhere as the 'bottom billion' (Collier, 2007), not only are
these least developed countries (LDCs) home to the world's poorest people
but also the development gap between them and developing countries more
generally (and developed countries too) is becoming greater. Collier (2007: 9)
claims, for example, that per capita income in LDCs declined by 0.5% per
annum during the 1990s; by 2000, 'they were poorer than they had been in
1970'. Interestingly, however, in recent years some LDCs, such as Uganda,
Tanzania and Cambodia, have experienced rates of growth in tourist arrivals
and receipts significantly higher than the world average, while their econo-
mies have become increasingly reliant on tourism; it now represents over
70% of service exports in LDCs.
In terms of low levels of health, a variety of measures are utilised
to demonstrate the health-related challenges within the developing
world. These include life expectancy at birth (55 years in land-locked devel-
oped countries (LLDCs); 68 years in all developing countries; 80 years in
industrialised countries) and infant mortality (83 per 1000 live births in
low income countries compared with five per 1000 in industrialised coun-
tries). However, progress is being made. According to the UNDP, since
1970, there has been a 25% improvement in development indicators in gen-
eral in developing countries, and a doubling of per capita income (UNDP,
2010b: 26).