Tangible ways forward

To contribute to reaching those furthest behind first, stakeholders in tourism must learn about the dynamics of poverty, marginalization and vulnerability in their country and place-specific context. It is imperative to involve the poor, the vulnerable and marginalised people in decisions on developments that affect their lives. Their rights must be safeguarded and mechanisms for their effective protection strengthened, including griev- ance mechanisms to deal with cases of human rights violations. Equal rights of men and women must be ensured, in line with target 1.4., taking into account that tourism may affect men and women differently (>> Goal 5).

Setting priorities, allocating resources

In implementing the 2030 Agenda, priorities need to be set and must reflect in policies and resource allocation. Subsidies for a sector like tourism are not in line with this priority. Big infrastructure projects (highway projects etc.) meant to stimulate tourism development often take away resources meant for programmes which would really help in poverty alleviation (>> Goal 9). The public and private sectors need to focus on re-distributive strat- egies that specifically support the poorest sections in terms of capacity-building, oppor- tunities, social security, and rights. A key challenge is the effective taxation of tourism activities to generate the resources needed for poverty alleviation and development.

Participation of deprived and marginalized groups

The participation of local communities in planning and decision making, tourism business, destination management and monitoring of benefits and detrimental effects of tourism is indispensable. Usually, the privileged sections of societies dominate in decisions and management of tourism. The involvement of the poor remains a major challenge. It requires empowerment and pro-active supply chain management that involves them in a targeted manner. Capacity building, training and skills development are preconditions for their meaningful involvement (>> Goal 4).

(Re-) examining the poverty alleviation performance of tourism

Governments and agencies usually use indicators such as tourist arrivals and tourism’s contribution to GDP and employment to point out the benefits of tourism. From a poverty alleviation perspective, however, the criteria used to assess tourism need to be different. A more suitable framework needs to include the impacts of tourism on the poor and people at risk of being left behind, whether beneficial or detrimental, by using a comprehen- sive set of indicators. This would include the impact of tourism on key aspects of human development as such education, health, and standard of living, as well as on people’s vul- nerability and resilience, and on the fulfilment of their rights and access to basic services. Such an approach requires micro level assessments. To leave no one behind in the 2030 Agenda, it is critical to systematically collect evidence on whether and how tourism does indeed reach those furthest behind.

Strengthen social protection

Social protection, decent work and sustainable livelihoods are economically productive and essential to sustainable development. Social protection helps individuals and societies mitigate against risks of impoverishment throughout a person’s life cycle to include situations of sickness, disability, old age (>> Goal 3),unemployment, disaster, general poverty, and social exclusion. However, only 20 percent of men, women, and children (one percent in developing countries and the rest in affluent countries) enjoy social pro- tection. Target 1.3 is aimed at implementing nationally appropriate social protection sys- tems and measures for all, including floors, and at achieving substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable by 2030. To enhance access to basic services and social protec- tion for the poor, tourism companies need to ensure that they contribute to decent work (>> Goal 8) and also make their full tax and revenue contributions to enable host country local and national governments to be able to run and provide access to comprehensive public services.

Tourism in development cooperation

Target 1.a seeks to ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions. Tourism, however, is not beneficial per se and should not be supported with development funding unless this happens against the backdrop of comprehensive analyses of the effectiveness of tourism as an instrument to overcome poverty. Official Development Assistance (ODA) or Aid for Trade (AfT) should not be invested in tourism infrastructure or tourist facilities. Rather, the needs of the people who are to benefit from tourism, especially poor and disadvantaged groups, need to be fully taken into consideration. Development projects need to be specifically targeted at the empowerment of poor and vulnerable groups of the population.This includes strengthening human rights and participation, as well as traditional sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and crafts, and local sourcing for tourism enterprises and tourists.