Is tourism employment a sufficient mechanism for poverty reduction? A case study from Nkhata Bay, Malawi

Abstract

Extensive attention has been paid to the magnitude and distribution of economic benefits derived from tourism employment by impoverished populations. However, less is known about how economic benefits, such as increased income, relate to poverty conditions at the intra-household level, particularly within the unique contexts of least developed countries. In this paper, we examine the relationship of tourism employment to poverty conditions in a lakeshore community in Malawi. First, we quantitatively compare employment and poverty conditions among the households of tourism employees with those of employees of non-tourism sectors. Secondly, we undertake a qualitative investigation into lodge employment, and its remuneration and fringe benefits from the perspectives of lodge owners and employees. Our findings of the former analysis reveal that while employees of the tourism sector experienced better working and monetary conditions, this group did not exhibit an improved status in other poverty conditions. The latter qualitative analysis shows that most tourism lodge owners adhered to labour standards of minimum wage, and voluntarily offered fringe benefits such as paying medical, funeral, and education expenses of lodge employees. However, despite this adherence to labour standards, there is little evidence that lodge employees and their households experience an improvement in poverty conditions.

Keywords:

• employment
• income
• fringe benefits
• poverty reduction
• Malawi

Notes

Although pro-poor tourism has been critiqued for its lack of theoretical and methodological rigour (Harrison, 2008), it has been widely adopted by international development agencies and national governments in less-developed countries.

Mitchell and Ashley (2010) refer to three ‘pathways’, but their application of the concept reflects more similarities to Wall and Mathieson's (2006) categorization of tourism impacts (1) direct, (2) indirect and (3) induced. For example, the sole analysis of tourism labour income is not a process.

Poverty conditions are adapted from the 2003 UNDP Human development report, in which they are referred to as ‘human development indicators’. Poverty conditions have also been adapted to reflect a household scale of analysis.

Malawi currently ranks 153rd out of 169 countries in the Human Development Index, the Multidimensional Poverty Index, and in the measure of gross domestic product per capita (US$902 PPP) (UNDP, 2011).

We must note that by design, our survey excluded the unemployed.

However, the term ‘local area’ could have been interpreted as the administrative region of the north, or the district area of Nkhata Bay.