Mahouts Elephant Foundation (MEF) is a UK charity and Thai-registered foundation that works on the ground to develop sustainable, welfare-focused tourist experiences to support the needs and livelihoods of traditional mahouts, their families and local communities, together with the needs of Asian...

This chapter focuses on the village of Grande Riviere, in north-east Trinidad. After a brief summary of its history, and its socio-economic characteristics in the early 1970s, the main focus is the village as it was three decades later, especially tourism and its impact on community life. The...

This chapter examines the vulnerability of small island developing states such as the Pitcairn Islands, and how their adaptive capacity to changing circumstances is important in achieving the goal of sustainable livelihood. The chapter discusses Pitcairn's current political and socio-economic...

This chapter provides an introduction to Part VI of the book with a focus on development, planning and governance in mountain tourism. Through this introductory summary it is understood that even though mountain tourism is an attractive and alternative livelihood, there are challenges to...

This chapter investigates the potential for tourism development to contribute to recovery strategies following earthquakes. It examines changes to livelihood assets in a rural community setting in Taiwan that had suffered a major earthquake in 1999 and subsequently sought to develop an ecotourism...

This chapter first gives an overview of the work that has been done in the field of tourism and poverty reduction and the major policy statements of the 'pro-poor tourism' proponents. Then there is a brief outline of the historical controversy of tourism as development before a critical look is...

This chapter illustrates the origins and ideas behind pro-poor tourism (PPT) by briefly illustrating issues and discussions related to tourism and development in less economically developed countries (LEDCs). This is followed by specifying the meaning of PPT and its origins; and showing the PPT...

This chapter looks at a number of conservation tourism ventures in South and Central America. The majority of cases reported in this chapter are in rainforest ecosystems, and most of them involve indigenous peoples concerned to protect their territories against various incursions and to provide...

This chapter analyses the effectiveness of tourism development in achieving better means of subsistence and conservation in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The text is largely based on qualitative research material collected between June and December 2007 at Sankoyo, Khwai and Mababe in the Delta....

This chapter examines how tourism can open doors for women in keeping with the MDG to combat global poverty and hunger in marginal areas of developing countries that are dominated by women with no other forms of livelihood. It is estimated that the formal tourism sector employs over 200 million...