ABSTRACT
The claim that the private sector offers the greatest hope for PPT runs contrary to the fact that major players in the tourism industry, as in any industry, are centrally concerned with profi t maximisation (Ashley and Haysom 2006; Zhao and Ritchie 2007). We cannot, therefore, assume that they might have an ethical commitment to ensuring their businesses contribute to poverty alleviation. Recent years have seen consolidation of the power of the largest tourism-related organisations through mergers and growth, rather than a dismantling of their power. Thus transformation of the modus operandi of the mainstream tourism industry, including large companies operating in a multitude of different countries and with a high degree of vertical integration, is a ‘big ask’. As Table 5.1 suggests, of all
stakeholders in tourism, the interests of the tourism industry are least likely to align with concern for community development (which can be a proxy in this case for the interests of the poor).
