In discussions on tourism policy reference is frequently made to the allegedly important role of tourism in combating and alleviating poverty. In recent years, this argument has been propounded in particular in the context of global climate justice, true to the motto that long-distance flights admittedly remit greenhouse gas, but that western tourists leave lots of urgently needed foreign currency in the so-called developing countries.

As a seemingly logical consequence global tourism creates lots of jobs and ensures bet- ter living conditions for hundreds of thousands of people in the developing countries ... But is this actually true?

This discussion is in parts highly polemic; the positions of “optimists” and “pessimists” appear to become increasingly entrenched. With the present dossier we should like to counteract this development and to analyse the pro-poor potential of tourism in a factu- ally substantiated and generally comprehensible manner.