Sustainable Livelihoods and Tourism: An Overview of the Nexus in Developing Countries

Livelihood is a key concept in grappling with poverty reduction. The term livelihood refers to the set of skills, assets (both material and social resources), and activities required for living. Livelihoods are sustainable if they can rebound from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance capabilities and assets (current standard of living) without under mining the natural resource base on which it depends (DFID, 1999). The core values of livelihoods are people-centered, holistic (implemented in partnership), dynamic, build on the strengths of the impoverished, and link the “micro” with the “macro” in a sustainability focus. This chapter aims to identify the operational and institutional variables that underpin the relationship between sustainable tourism and sustainable livelihoods in a given region. To this end, we propose an interdisciplinary framework, the Sustainable Livelihood Framework in Figure 3.1 (SLF, Fig. 3.1), which is based on a first elaboration by Chambers and Conway (1992) and adapted according to additional elements such as interdependence and functionality. This approach puts people at the center of development, thereby increasing the effectiveness of development assistance. In this simple form, the framework involves people operating in a vulnerable context. Beyond what the framework already considers, it has emerged that social, institutional, and organizational environments also influence livelihood strategies by combining and using assets.