Sustainable Livelihoods and Tourism: An Overview of the Nexus in Developing Countries

This chapter aims to identify coherent operational and institutional indicators and variables that impact people and the environment in order to analyze the relationship between sustainable tourism and sustainable livelihoods on a global scale. Through a structured analysis, we monitor different countries to highlight the enforcement of practices adopted to support efforts to combat the poaching and trafficking of protected species by increasing local communities’ capacity to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities such as through tourism businesses. Through the implementation of indicator 15.C, we detect how countries globally have protected, restored, and promoted the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managed forests, combated desertification, stopped and reversed land degradation, and stopped the loss of biodiversity. We then monitor target SDG 12.B, which posits the application of standards for measuring the environmental aspects of tourism. The query system concerns the implementation of the above targets in the Tourism Satellite Accounts and System of Environmental and Economic Accounts; the analysis relates to the number of protected areas and the Tourism Sustainable Development Index (TSDI), Environmental and Climate Index (ECI), and Health Tourism Economic index (HTE). Our results highlight the existing interaction between resources, strategies, and outcomes that encompass the Sustainable Livelihood Framework in tourism. This replicable analysis represents a valuable evaluation methodology for public and private stakeholders involved in the tourism system as well as in planning and programming activities.