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Abstract
Despite the growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in tourism for developing countries and its perceived developmental importance, there are few empirical impact studies. This paper explores tourism FDI and poverty alleviation through both the literature and a detailed review in The Gambia of the relative contribution of foreign versus locally owned hotels to development and poverty alleviation. Data was collected via an in-depth questionnaire with senior hotel management and through key informant interviews with tourism officials and stakeholders. The study provides empirical evidence of the relative characteristics, performance, and benefits of foreign investments, suggesting that different forms of hotel ownership have complex advantages and disadvantages for poverty alleviation. FDI was concentrated in larger, upmarket hotels, which tended to employ more staff, pay higher wages, and provide more training. However, they had a lower proportion of women employees and employment was more likely seasonal. They have more high-skilled positions, potentially offer staff mobility, but have more expatriates in management roles. Local food purchases were similar across hotel ownership types, as were local philanthropic initiatives, although there were differences of approach. Some resident foreign owners were involved in successful best practice community-linked businesses, driven by social service and environmental ethics.
旅游，扶贫和可持续性旅游里的外商直接投资：赞比亚酒店业的情况
尽管外国直接投资在发展中国家的旅游业越来越重要，现在仍然处于一些实践影响的研究中。这篇文章通过文献和详细地回顾赞比亚外资与本土旅馆对发展和改善贫困的相关贡献 ，来探索旅游业的外国直接投资和改善贫困之间的关系。数据是通过对资深旅馆管理人员的深入问卷调查以及对旅游局和利益相关者的人物访谈的形式收集的。研究所提供的外商投资的相关特征，表现，好处的实践证明表示，不同形式的所有制旅馆对于改善贫困既有劣势也有优势。外商直接投资被集中于那些可以雇佣更多员工、提供更高薪水和更多培训的大的，高档的酒店。但是它们有更低的女性员工比例并且招聘更有季节性。虽然它们有更多高技能的职位，并且潜在地为职工提供机动性，但是管理层大多为外派人员。虽然当地食品采购有不同的途径，但是作为一项当地的慈善方案，在不同类型的所有制酒店中它们是相似的。一些居民成功地被包含在那些连接商业、通过社会服务带动和环境道德的外国所有的最佳实践社区之中。
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the interviewees for their generous assistance with the research, particularly the staff at the GTA, as well as Dr Diana Barrowclough and Dr Anne Miroux from the UNCTAD. The authors also thank the participants at the BEST EN Think Tank XIII in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for their valuable comments on a previous version of this paper. Finally, the comments and suggestions of the three anonymous reviewers and editor Bernard Lane have greatly helped in revising the paper. Financial support from the UNCTAD is also gratefully acknowledged. However, the views, opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper are strictly those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNCTAD.
Notes
1. See, for example, the The Gambia Tourism Development Master Plan, accessed October 2012 from http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/e-forum/The%20Gambia%20Summary%20Report%20November%202006.pdf.
2. The government has recently embarked on an overhaul of investment laws and incentives in a bid to encourage private investment, in line with recommendations from the IMF on tax policy. For further details, see http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2012/cr1217.pdf. Accessed 20 March 2012.
3. Mitchell and Faal (Citation2007) reported 71% and 25%, respectively.
4. Some employees take this opportunity to travel or to return to their villages for farming activities.
5. Note that Senegalese employees were not considered expatriates by our respondents.
6. Goods that are used as inputs into the production of other goods, and therefore not counted as part of a country's GDP to avoid double counting.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lee Davidson
Lee Davidson received her PhD in tourism management from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She has been teaching at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, since 1999. Working across the fields of leisure, tourism, and museum and heritage studies, her research interests include sustainable tourism development, visitor behaviour and experience at natural and cultural sites, and implications for effective management of these sites.
Mondher Sahli
Mondher Sahli received his doctoral degree in economics from the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. He joined Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 2001 and has been a frequent visiting professor at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain. His principal research interests are in the field of tourism economics, international trade, and economic development, and he has undertaken a wide range of studies and training programmes in tourism for the United Nations. He is currently the Secretary General of the International Association for Tourism Economics (IATE).