As a result of the phenomenal growth of the sharing economy in the travel industry, investigating its potential impacts on travelers and tourism destinations is of paramount importance. The goal of this study was to identify how the use of peer-to-peer accommodation leads to changes in travelers’ behavior. Based on two online surveys targeting travelers from the United States and Finland, it was identified that the social and economic appeals of peer-to-peer accommodation significantly affect expansion in destination selection, increase in travel frequency, length of stay, and range of activities participated in tourism destinations. Travelers’ desires for more meaningful social interactions with locals and unique experiences in authentic settings drive them to travel more often, stay longer, and participate in more activities. Also, the reduction in accommodation cost allows travelers to consider and select destinations, trips, and tourism activities that are otherwise cost-prohibitive. Implications for tourism planning and management are provided.

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Impacts of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Use on Travel Patterns

Building on the model by Perdue, Long, and Allen, this study examined residents’ attitudes toward existing and future tourism development in several rural areas at different stages of tourism and economic development. Social exchange theory and destination life cycle model were used to examine the impacts of tourism development on residents’ attitudes when considered in conjunction with a community’s total economic activity. New social predictors and endogenous factors were tested in the model. Overall, residents of three distinct rural county-level areas were supportive of tourism development, and little evidence was found that suggests that attitudes toward tourism become negative with higher levels of tourism. After considering the level of tourism development in conjunction with the total economic activity, residents of the three county-level areas showed some signs of destination life cycle influencing their own relationship with tourism.

Residents’ Attitudes toward Existing and Future Tourism Development in Rural Communities

Current discourse surrounding ‘pro-poor tourism’, a term emerging out of the writing of UK researchers in the late 1990s, suggests that tourism can effectively work as a tool to alleviate poverty. This proposition is alluring given that tourism is a significant or growing economic sector in most countries with high levels of poverty. Consequently the idea of utilising tourism to eliminate poverty has been embraced by donors, governments, non-governmental organisations, conservation organisations and tourism bodies, including the World Tourism Organisation. Academic views on the relationship between poverty and tourism have however varied widely over the past half century. While in the 1950s tourism was identified as a modernisation strategy that could help newly-independent Third World countries to earn foreign exchange, in the 1970s and 1980s many social scientists argued that poor people and non-Western countries are typically excluded from or disadvantaged by what tourism can offer. It is thus fascinat...

Exploring the Tourism-Poverty Nexus

The past decade has seen an upsurge of interest from the governments and development organisations in a tourism-based approach to poverty alleviation. More specifically, poverty alleviation has been established as a major priority within the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) itself, as is evidenced by the launching of the concept of ST-EP (Sustainable Tourism as an effective tool for Eliminating Poverty). In contrast, the implications of tourism for poverty alleviation have been largely neglected by the tourism academic community. Relevant research to date is fragmented, limited in scope, and lacks a consistent methodological development. To address these deficiencies, this paper presents an integrative research framework, which synthesises multiple perspectives and can be used as an overarching guideline to stimulate and guide other future enquiries on tourism and poverty alleviation. Towards this end, a number of research needs and opportunities have also been identified and suggested al...

Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: An Integrative Research Framework

The role of community involvement and number/type of visitors on tourism impacts: A controlled comparison of Annapurna, Nepal and Northwest Yunnan, China

Jenny Briedenhann

Papers

Tourism routes as a tool for the economic development of rural areas—vibrant hope or impossible dream?

Developing cultural tourism in South Africa: potential and pitfalls