Pro-Poor Tourism in India: Reality or Hyperbole!

Tourism industry has been applauded for being the sunrise industry for its continuous growth and potential to alleviate poverty. India is a country with diverse untapped tourism resources and also, a country that has suffered from persistent poverty. Hence, the tourism sector can act as a panacea to the problem of poverty especially in a developing country like India. In the last two decades, a good number of tourism initiatives with a ‘Pro-poor approach’ are launched in India but there is hardly any study that has put light on the effectiveness of such initiatives or policies on the poor or how such tourism approach or strategy can be more effective in the Indian context