Experience of Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) in China: A Sustainable Livelihood Perspective

Abstract

Pro-poor tourism is a powerful tool in China’s poverty alleviation strategy, helping the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 1, no poverty. Thus, the Chinese experience in tourism poverty reduction could be instructive. Considering the dominant role of the government in PPT, this study examines the government’s PPT scheme within a sustainable livelihood framework, uncovering the usefulness of PPT in poverty alleviation. With thematic analysis, 18 cases are systematically coded, and several findings are discovered. Rural development is co-evolutionary with PPT, while livelihood capitals change correspondingly. Specifically, human capital is mentioned as the top priority, followed by economic capital, institutional capital, social capital, and natural capital. Analysis of the cases indicates that livelihood capital comprises multiple themes, and a variety of livelihood strategies are applied conditionally. Additionally, livelihood outcomes are in accord with the criteria of Beautiful Village, characterized by good quality of life. In summary, the success of the PPT in China is a comprehensive project, contributed to by a government-led model, a well-organized community system, effective community participation, and whole-of-society synergy. The study demonstrates that a paradigm shift has been seen in China’s PPT model and sheds light on tourism development in poverty alleviation globally.

The role of local economic development in reducing poverty alleviation: Tourism development activity

“…Costa et al (2023) also explained that if local people want to develop cultural tourism, they must also pay attention to preserving their culture and the threats they will face. Wang and Dong (2022) stated that sustainable tourism aims to provide a satisfying experience for tourists. With customer satisfaction, tourists will revisit tourism (Irawan & Hartoyo, 2022).…”

“…Poverty alleviation is a crucial issue and continues to be an exciting study in several countries. Poverty reduction has an important influence on sustainable development and social welfare (Wang & Dong, 2022;Yi, Xie, Zhou, & Wei, 2020). There are several empirical priorities in addressing poverty, including social justice, social stability, economic growth, the quality of human resources, and the declining quality of education (Akbar, Abdullah, & Syed, 2022).…”