Is Tourism Driven Poverty Alleviation 'Rhetoric' or 'Pragmatic Ideal'? Scanning the Academic Discourses

Poverty is ubiquitous in the nook and corner of the globe despite the efforts of international agencies including the UN to offset the issues about it. The challenges are increasing day by day. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) hence highlighted poverty eradication as one of its main mottos. The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the apex body of tourism development also advocated the MDGs and quoted Tourism as a ‘War on Poverty’. Since then, Tourism has been widely considered as a tool for poverty eradication and economic equity. Many organizations like United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), International Labor Organization (ILO), and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have endorsed the power of Tourism in alleviating poverty. However, the voice is not unanimous across the academic community across the world. Various studies conducted by notable authors and also the publications have accused Tourism as a capitalist sector and also a threat to the indigenous cultures and economy of the third world countries. Many a debate on the theme point out that the influences of tourism on mitigating poverty are just superfluous. This paper is an attempt to highlight and analyze the discourses existing in the theoretical frameworks of tourism’s role in poverty elimination. This paper will also attempt to envisage channels for ideally bridging the contrasting points present in the theories