Paper short abstract:

Pro-poor value chain analysis (VCA) has been frequently applied to measure the economic impact of tourism strategies. This research tests VCA in Brazil's Northeast and asks to leave the positivist paradigm behind and move towards a more holistic and critical approach.

Paper long abstract:

In the globalised world, tourism has become one of the largest industries, creating 284 million jobs and generating 9.8 % of the world's GDP (WTTC, 2016). Due to the potential of tourism to achieve economic development, overcome poverty and reduce inequality, international development organisations have applied tourism as a strategy for development and poverty reduction in developing countries. To measure the economic impact of these strategies, pro-poor value chain analysis (VCA) has been frequently utilised. This research applied the standard pro-poor VCA approach and its associated guidelines by the International Trade Centre (2009) in a coastal destination in Brazil's Northeast to critically evaluate its methodological and explanatory value. While it offered valuable insight into the local tourism industry and identified economic impacts of tourism, it did neither provide explanations for the underlying reasons of the identified economic impacts nor of their value for poor people. In other words: pro-poor VCA only tells us 'where the money goes'; however, it does neither tell us 'why the money flows in a certain way' nor 'how it is valued by poor people'. This research asks to leave the positivist paradigm behind and move towards a more holistic and critical approach of evaluating the impact of tourism on poverty reduction that is underpinned by an investigation of power relations in the tourism value chain.