ABSTRACT
Although the relationship between tourism and development has been a field of fierce debate for 50 years (Ashley & Goodwin, 2007; Ashley & Harrison, 2007; Britton, 1982; de Kadt, 1979; Harrison, 2010; Hawkins & Mann, 2007; Lea, 1988; Mowforth & Munt, 2003; Scheyvens, 2007, 2009, 2011; Sharpley, 2009; Sharpley & Telfer, 2002; Smith & Eadington, 1992; Telfer, 2009; Telfer & Sharpley, 2008; van der Duim, 2008), international development organisations like Germany’s GTZ, USAID and the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation entered this field only in the last two decades. Influenced by pre-and post-Rio discussions on sustainable development, these organisations embraced tourism, first reluctantly and then enthusiastically, as a tool for development and poverty reduction (see Goodwin, 2008, 2009; Harrison & Schipani, 2009; Hawkins &Mann, 2007; Scheyvens, 2007, 2011; van der Duim, 2008). Whereas in the 1980s and early 1990s, attention was focused on alternative, community-based and small-scale tourism, at the turn of the new century “pro-poor tourism” became the focus of concern (Goodwin, 2008).
