Title: A Critical Analysis of Microfinance Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: Characteristics, Opportunities and Constraints
Abstract: Set within the context of increasing global commitment to eradicate extreme poverty, this research critically analyses and evaluates the extent to which microfinance tourism (MFT) is an effective vehicle for poverty alleviation in developing countries. For decades, both microfinance and tourism have been promoted as key strategies for global poverty alleviation. Microfinance can offer people living in poverty, especially those considered ‘unbankable’, the necessary financial and educational support to engage in entrepreneurial activities, while tourism has the capacity to reduce poverty via economic development and global citizenship education. MFT emerged in 2008 as an innovative approach that pioneers the integration of microfinance and tourism for poverty alleviation purposes. Despite promising great hope for many by addressing multiple facets of the poverty issue, the extent to which MFT rhetoric translates into reality is
unclear, given that the positive impacts of both microfinance and tourism on poverty alleviation remain debatable. More importantly, MFT as an antipoverty intervention built around impoverished communities also has the potential to inflict a range of negative impacts on vulnerable populations. Yet the literature on MFT is almost completely absent; thus there is a pressing need to undertake a comprehensive
investigation of MFT to increase our understanding of the phenomenon.
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-01-01
Language: en
Type: dissertation
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Cited By Count: 2
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