Project Description
“Many members of rural communities leave their home to move to urban centres as a livelihood strategy. This thesis explores the viability of rural tourism as a livelihood strategy to slow down the rural-urban migration. For this, it takes a comparative case study approach to explore the differences in a case of the West with a case of the Global South. The sustainable livelihoods framework is applied to them. Methodological it makes use of interviews. The research resulted in the finding that the case context matters. Here especially the institutional arrangements were identified as a key factor. Depending on their state, they can facilitate the development or in the case of Global South, hinder it. Moreover, the results showed that rural tourism as a concept of the West is transferable to the Global South. In both cases, livelihood developments have been identified, and rural communities adapted it as a livelihood strategy. The findings are limited by the low number of interviews and the scope on horizontal institutions. Nonetheless, it was concluded that rural tourism could be applied in practice to provide a livelihood strategy to rural communities if appropriate policy and management measures are being taken that take the local context into account.”
Author: P. Hilzendegen (2019)
