Empty bowls: conceptualising the role of tourism in contributing to sustainable rural food security

Abstract

It has been suggested that the food insecurity situation prevalent in many parts of the developing world could be alleviated through the creation of tourism-based alternative livelihoods. However, while tourism has been framed as a tool for poverty reduction and livelihood improvement, less attention has been paid to the direct tourism food security link. It is the intention of this article to bring tourism and food security together thereby providing a conceptual discussion for addressing the tourism-food security nexus. A model is deductively developed through review of relevant previous studies linking tourism and its relationship with development, poverty, food security, livelihoods and sustainability. The discussion examines the drivers of these relationships through drawing together extant research relating to tourism, and other livelihood activities and sectors. By doing so, the discussion highlights the key concerns for tourism to work effectively in relation to food security. The importance of sectoral and policy integration in terms of ensuring beneficial relationships across sectors is emphasized. It is concluded that understanding the tourism-food security linkage is crucial for combating poverty in general, and food insecurity specifically.

Keywords:

• Sustainable tourism
• food security
• food availability
• food access
• food utilization
• food stability
• livelihoods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gebeyaw Ambelu

Gebeyaw Ambelu is a Lecturer under Tourism and Development Program, College of Development Studies at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and currently a PhD candidate at the University of Otago, Department of Tourism.

Brent Lovelock

Brent Lovelock is an associate professor of Tourism, and co-director of the Centre for Recreation Research, at the University of Otago, specializing in the areas of tourism development, sustainability and ethics.

Hazel Tucker

Hazel Tucker is an associate professor in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Hazel has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Durham University, and is author of Living with Tourism (2003) and co-editor of Tourism and Postcolonialism (2004) and Commercial Homes in Tourism (2009). Her current research interests include the politics of representation in heritage tourism, and empathy and shame in tourism encounters.