Editorial

Citation

Croes, R. (2014), "Editorial", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-03-2014-0020

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Volume 6, Issue 3

On 12 June 2014, millions of people around the world will tune in for the opening match in the 2014 FIFA World Cup hosted by Brazil. As the region prepares to host large numbers of visitors, it is timely to consider the extent to which tourism can play a meaningful role in poverty reduction. To investigate this, Theme Editor Robertico Croes brought together a team of experienced researchers with particular interests in Latin America and the Caribbean. The issue reveals how economic and social forces shape the relationships between tourism and poverty reduction in some Latin American countries and how communities often feel left out of the development process despite efforts to include them. I should like to thank Robertico and his colleagues for their meticulous work and for generating some potential solutions for Governments and tourism policy makers. Robertico would like to thank H.S. (Jenna) Lee for her contribution to this theme issue as Editorial Assistant. Jenna worked diligently to facilitate the peer review process and with the authors to ensure that the papers were completed in a timely manner.

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) aims to make a practical and theoretical contribution to hospitality and tourism development and we seek to do this by using a key question to focus attention on an industry issue. If you would like to contribute to our work by serving as a WHATT theme editor, do please contact me.

Richard Teare
Managing Editor, WHATT

How might tourism contribute to poverty reduction in Latin American countries?

This theme issue covers a range of Latin American countries all of whom have allocated resources to tourism development. One of the main reasons for supporting tourism as a development tool in their strategies is to alleviate poverty. Yet, the results are mixed: some countries have witnessed steady, or even increased, rates of poverty, while tourism revenues have increased. Investigating the link between tourism and poverty, and the conditions that shape this link is, therefore, the main focus of the issue.

To address the theme issue question, I assembled a team of contributors with considerable personal experience of developing countries and with research expertise relating to the potential of tourism to reduce poverty. Among other issues, the team explored the collaborative potential for tourism within a destination, heritage tourism, community tourism, and rural and wilderness tourism in developing countries including Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, and Jamaica. Authors were invited to explore different perspectives and to use a variety of methodologies to examine the potential for poverty reduction and the conditions that could promote or stifle poverty reduction through tourism development in Latin America. To shape and refine the collection of articles, each paper underwent a blind review process and further revision.

This issue reveals some interesting features pertaining to concepts, perspectives as well as methodologies. The link between tourism development and poverty reduction is measured, using models that have been seldom used in tourism research. In addition, perspectives regarding common pool resources are employed to gauge the conditions that would trigger collaboration and/or defection among stakeholders. Community-based tourism is enriched with the integration of concepts borrowed from collaborative destination marketing and strategic destination branding. Finally, ethnographic case studies are combined with community-based tourism to assess the potential of tourism for poverty reduction in Latin American countries. Taken together, the collection of articles enhances our understanding of the challenges facing and shaping the tourism-poverty link in Latin America.

About the Theme Editor

Dr Robertico Croes currently serves as the Chair of the Tourism, Events & Attractions department as well as the Associate Director of the Dick Pope Sr Institute for Tourism Studies at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida. Professor Croes is the author of two books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters and has lectured and made presentations throughout the world, including Armenia, The Netherlands, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Aruba, Curacao, the Bahamas, Ecuador, Barbados, Puerto Rico and Mexico. His research has also been presented at industry and research conferences around the world including: South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Cyprus, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Turkey, Taiwan, and Trinidad and Tobago. His fields of interest include: econometric applications in hospitality, tourism demand analysis/forecasting, tourism economic impact, competitive and sustainable tourism in tourism development analysis, tourism development applied to poverty alleviation and tourism development in developing countries. His forthcoming book (Autumn, 2014) explores tourism and poverty alleviation in developing countries.

Robertico Croes
Theme Editor