Tourism-Led Inclusive Growth in Emerging and Developing Economies: A Systematic Literature Review

The focus of governments around the globe to accelerate economic growth through market-driven policies has resulted merely in increasing GDP while deterring certain groups from becoming a part of their development agenda. This turned the focus of leading international developmental communities toward the concept of inclusive growth that strives to reduce poverty and inequality by creating equitable and productive opportunities for all sections of society, including the often-excluded ones. Considering its profound and wide-ranging impacts on the destination’s economy, the tourism industry has been identified as a harbinger of inclusive growth. The conception of tourism-led inclusive growth remains contended in the academic literature. Therefore, as an attempt to contribute to the existing debate, the present study has been undertaken to explore the rapport between tourism and inclusive growth by systematically reviewing the scientific literature and the evolutionary nuances of this research field. The literature for this purpose was derived from the two most renowned databases viz. Scopus and Web of Science. The content analysis of 27 systematically selected articles performed in the present study highlighted a set of seven noteworthy research areas/themes and a variety of topics under each theme that shape the knowledge structure of the underlying research field. The overall analysis calls for further investigations in the tourism sectors of low-income nations to find significant empirical evidence that may validate the hypothesis of tourism-led inclusive growth and signals a need for evidence-based frameworks to harness inclusive growth through tourism development.