RESEARCH

Tourism has become a major economic engine at the global level, yet it is highly localised. Due to its geographical distribution and labour intensive nature, tourism provides a wide range of employment opportunities for poor and vulnerable groups in developing countries, especially but not exclusively in rural and remote areas. These groups include women, low-skilled, low-wage workers and migrant workers. They not only work in the tourism sector, but also in other economic activities that produce outputs to feed the tourism sector, such as construction, handcrafts and agriculture. There is also a wide group of informal workers who draw their income through the tourism sector, especially in developing countries.

Tourism has suffered a great deal as a result of the global economic crisis, with a decline of 4% in international tourist arrivals in 2009. Furthermore, preliminary estimates show that income from international tourism was down 6% by 2009. It is reasonable to assume that this has had a serious impact on vulnerable groups in developing countries. 

One of the major problems in evaluating the poverty alleviation potential of tourism is the lack of robust data on the real proportion of GDP accounted for by tourism, on employment within the sector and on “trickledown” effects within the national economy. Based on these preconditions, the proposed study aims to shed light on the question: “What are the impacts of the recent decrease in tourism demand resulting from the global economic crisis in terms of employment for the poor and vulnerable groups?”

More specifically, the research will seek to identify:

1. How and to what degree the economic crisis has negatively affected tourism, specifically that of DCs and LDCs,
2. How the variety of performances across countries can be explained,
3. To what degree a decrease in tourism income has resulted in a loss of employment on the domestic level and how poor and vulnerable groups of employees have been affected,
4. In which segments did losses occur and in which industries of the value chain (travel agents, hotels, in-coming agencies, tourism related trade and other tourism related services) did these losses predominantly take place and impact on the poor,
5. What public policy and business measures have been undertaken to mitigate the impacts of the crisis on these dependent and disadvantaged groups, and
6. Which of these measures have been more successful, and under what circumstances.

The research triangulates quantitative and qualitative methodologies combining a large n-comparison on the global level with the intensive study of two (or three) country cases at the local level. Such a conceptual framework will allow for the development of a broader comparative overview of the overall impact of the recent crisis on tourism within DCs and LDCs. It will also provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of these processes on local levels. The approach aims to provide evidence of the potential impact that a decrease in tourism demand has on the levels and opportunities of employment among poor and vulnerable groups (including specific groups such as women, youth, etc.) within selected countries, whose main source of income depends directly or in-directly on tourism