Fostering Global Citizenship Through the Microfinance-tourism Nexus

Abstract

Tourism has increasingly been framed as a tool for educating global citizens (Hollinshead, 2009; Pritchard, Morgan, & Ateljevic, 2011). Responsible tourism practices in emerging economies have the capacity not only to increase inter-cultural awareness, tolerance and understanding but to also facilitate creative initiatives through which long term change can emerge. In a separate and parallel stream of research and practice, micro-finance has increasingly become a tool to assist the poor, particularly those considered ‘unbankable’, to develop entrepreneurial activities. Often, microfinance has been used to assist in the production of arts and crafts, food services and other products consumed within the tourism system, but beyond that, the nexus between tourism and micro-finance has not been explored in any depth. In particular, the literature that combines these two areas is sparse, with only a few early attempts mentioning the inducement of local tourism-based projects through micro-loans (Hoeve ten, 2009; UNWTO, 2005). These do not reflect what is happening in practice, with various cross-over activities between microfinance and tourism increasingly taking place, and which arguably have potential to educate not only travellers but also a range of stakeholders operating within the microfinance-tourism nexus about global citizenship. This paper aims to address the gap in the literature by examining the promotion of global citizenship through the microfinance-tourism nexus from a stakeholder perspective. We argue that while practice has led research in the area of micro-finance and tourism to date, there is a growing need to better understand the potential opportunities and constraints of fostering global citizenship in this field in order to inform future debates in both theory and practice.