Inclusive growth and pro-poor growth are terms embraced but not fully understood in the tourism community. This paper discusses the main concepts of inclusive growth and their implication for tourism development across the developing world. Is inclusive growth simply another term for pro-poor in tourism? Discussion of current approaches utilized by the development community and its institutions highlights differences and notes a shift from pro-poor thinking to inclusive growth efforts. Within that context, the authors suggest the need for an improved understanding of the inclusive growth approach in tourism development, particularly for emerging countries.

Continued discussions concerning the adverse effects of high levels of inequality require a better understanding of tourism's contribution to inclusive growth. If tourism is to be supportive of inclusive growth, it must create productive employment opportunities, while also ensuring equal access to these opportunities. This paper aims to analyse the constraints that prohibit the tourism sector from being a catalyst for inclusive growth, by developing a Tourism-Driven Inclusive Growth Diagnostic (T-DIGD) framework. This conceptual framework is adapted from the Hausmann, Rodrik, and Velasco growth diagnostic to the specific needs of the tourism sector and can support practitioners through a structured knowledge building process, in the design of policies and interventions that can promote inclusive growth. The T-DIGD departs from conventional and mainly quantitative approaches of the drivers of tourism growth and focuses on the "deep determinants" of tourism-driven inclusive growth.

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This paper aims to further advance the theoretical and practical understanding of tourism and inclusive growth by evaluating the Tourism-Driven Inclusive Growth Diagnostic (T-DIGD) framework in practice. This was done by defining a mixed-method methodology including identifying 96 indicators and applying the framework to the tourism sector of North Macedonia. Testing the diagnostic and evaluating its strengths and weaknesses showed that this is a promising approach as it can identify the possible binding constraints to tourism-driven inclusive growth out of a large selection of possible factors. It can thereby contribute to a way of systematically and transparently prioritizing policies to formulate a context-specific development strategy in the presence of limited resources. This paper is timely and relevant for tourism policy makers as there is an increased demand for tools that can be used for evidence-based policy making for tourism development.

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