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| PPT STRATEGY AND BACKPACKER TOURISM——A Case Study of Northwest Yunnan Province |
| ZHU Xuan |
1. Center for China Modern City Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China;
2. Shanghai Institute of Tourism, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China |
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Abstract Poverty is a classical world puzzle. In recent years, PPT (pro-poor tourism) strategy has been put forward and relates poverty reduction with tourism. As the biggest developing country of vast population, multiple ethnic groups and complex terrain, China faces an even tougher poverty problem. The population immersed in poverty mainly concentrates in the mid and west part of China, where possesses the richest tourism resources in China. Removing their poverty through tourism has naturally become one of the most effective means of minimizing the obvious economic difference between the west hinterland and the east coast. Yunnan is one of the provinces that boast the most affluent tourism resources but at the same time burdened with the most numerous needy counties in China. It has seventy-three counties covered by the national "Eight-seven" poverty alleviation reinforcement plan. Yunnan's colorful tourism resources lie where the poorest areas are. Northwest Yunnan is such a typical region that boasts the world-class tourism resources but suffers from the sharp poverty. Thus PPT strategy should be implemented to eliminate its poverty through tourism development.
Although PPT strategy and alternative tourism have been advocated to improve tourism industry and eliminate poverty, they are more conceptional than exercisable. Few have studied the adoptable tourist product that can be counted as part of the PPT strategy and alternative tourism. By analyzing the conditions of the poor areas in Yunnan and their advantages in practicing PPT strategy, the author further probes into what is the most direct form of the alternative tourism. Based on her participant observation of over-one-month backpacking and hiking in northwest Yunnan, the author points out that backpacker tourism can be the choice of PPT strategy. The relation between backpacker tourism and the development of the poor population is expounded and current backpacker tourism situation in Northwest Yunnan is explored.
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Received: 19 July 2005
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2006, Vol. 21 
