Review of the impacts of previous pro-poor tourism research

This reports on the results from a survey that aimed to find out if the pro poor tourism research process and results had influenced attitudes and/or practice in tourism among those involved in six previously undertaken case studies of PPT initiatives.

The author emphasises that the report did not aim to consider the impacts on the poor of the PPT activities, but rather to assess the impact of assessing projects using a PPT approach. A key question is whether it increases adoption of PPT strategies and then, over time, pro-poor impacts, but it is the adoption of the approach, not the implementation of a set of strategies, that is being assessed.

Overall, the respondents felt the PPT concept to be useful in bringing together all relevant strategies and concepts, but they also felt that propoor tourism was not comprehensible to tourists and industry. The participants did generally feel that the way they work has been influenced by the process but did not feel able to identify precise impacts on the poor in the time frame since the research had been carried out. The report also considers the strengths and weaknesses of the research process and outputs.