Targeted poverty alleviation in China: segmenting small tourism entrepreneurs and effectively supporting them

Abstract

Cultivating and encouraging local small tourism enterprises (STEs) is considered an effective way to alleviate poverty. Chinese local governments tend to concentrate their limited policies and initiatives on targeting STEs and effective ways to achieve better performance, following the proposed government policy called Targeted Poverty Alleviation by Tourism Development (TPATD). To discover which group is targeted and how, this study classified small tourism entrepreneurs and examined determinants of their performance. A quota sampling survey of 273 entrepreneurs in five tourism communities within a scenic area known as Yuntai Mountain was conducted in 2016. Seven determinants were identified: business skills, leadership, innovation, social relations, governmental support, autonomy, and locus of control. Three distinct small tourism entrepreneur segments were classified as independents, followers, and autodidacts. Each segment is worth helping but in different ways. Leadership, business skills, and innovation are key determinants of performance for all segments. Governmental support should be more visible, targeted, and recognized by locals. The administrative subcontract of TPATD in China is also discussed.

Keywords:

• Entrepreneur
• small tourism enterprise
• performance
• administrative subcontract
• poverty alleviation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [project number 41301146] and Monitoring Centre for UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatories.

Notes on contributors

Zengxian Liang

Zengxian Liang, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University. He is particularly intrigued by tourism development and human development, especially interaction between urban tourism and social space reconstruction in modern China, tourism development and poverty alleviation, tourism development and quality of life (QOL).

Jigang Bao

Jigang Bao, PhD, is a professor in the School of Tourism Management and Center for Tourism Planning and Research at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. He is also the director of Monitoring Centre for UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatories. His research interests cover sustainable tourism, tourism geography, tourism planning, tourism policy, and human development. In recent years, he has been dedicated to researching community participation in tourism and pro-poor tourism in China.