Evaluating The Effects Of Private Tourism Economy On Poverty Alleviation

The poverty alleviation model of "hematopoiesis" in tourism exploitation, compared with the traditional "blood transfusion" model that highlights financial support, is more effective in stimulating people in impoverished areas to get out of poverty by themselves. Following the "hematopoiesis" model, developing private tourism economy has become an important means for poor people to improve their life. Focusing on the businesses of private tourism economy, this thesis aims to construct a conceptual model to evaluate their effects on poverty alleviation, which will serve as the theoretical foundation for practices in this regard. An empirical study on Yangmei Village of Nanning, Guangxi, is intended to test the usefulness of the model.This thesis consists of 5 chapters. Chapter 1 describes the structure, methods, and significance of the research, and reviews relevant literature. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 constructs the effect evaluation model based upon a wide range of theoretical and practical considerations, and specifies the evaluation framework, techniques, and tools. Built upon the above evaluation model, Chapter 4 conducts both qualitative and quantitative analysis on the effects of private tourism economy in Yangmei Village on the reduction of local poverty. Specifically, through detailed analysis of the data gathered, it examines the current situation of tourism and private tourism economy development in Yangmei Village, evaluates the roles of private tourism economy in poverty alleviation, and beyond that makes some important policy suggestions. Chapter 5 summarizes the research findings, and discusses the future research needs.The thesis has drawn several major conclusions: (1) Any poverty alleviation effect evaluation models should give adequate considerations to the elements, formation process, and influencing factors of poverty and poverty alleviation; (2) The framework of hierarchical poverty alleviation effect evaluation proposed in this thesis is instrumental; (3) A combinative application of both qualitative and quantitative analysis is more effective than a single type of analysis.The innovativeness of this study can be understood from the following points: (1) Private tourism economy was first treated as the focus in domestic Pro-Poor Tourism research, and the framework of poverty alleviation effect evaluation was also novel; (2) Different from previous effect evaluation methods that are usually concerned with macroscopic indexes, the method proposed in this study pays more attention to the improvement in the overall welfare of impoverished areas or relatively impoverished areas through economic ways; (3) In accordance with the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, this thesis advocated building up the evaluation framework based upon a comprehensive consideration of economic, social, and environmental factors, and combining both macro and micro, static and dynamic, actual and perceptual, and positive and negative perspectives.