Debates on whether tourism has pro-poor effects remain imperative and unsettled owing to the discrepancy of research perspectives, estimation techniques, data source, study regions, and variables designs, etc. With the eradication of absolute poverty in China, the focus of tourism-relative poverty nexus could get deeper insights into the poverty reduction efficacy of tourism development in developing countries. This study examines the impacts of rural households’ tourism participation on relative poverty using the survey data from 22 pro-poor tourism villages located in western China and the endogenous switching probit (ESP) model. The results show that participating in rural tourism reduces both objective and subjective relative poverty. However, it has no direct effect on subjective poverty, but exerts an indirect effect by decreasing objective poverty. Furthermore, heterogeneous effect analysis shows dual impacts. On the one hand, it brings reduction of relative poverty probability for tourism participants; on the other hand, it exacerbates the relative gap by individual endogenous capital endowments and narrows the gap by exogenous targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) policy interventions. Our findings extend theoretical significance of the pro-poor tourism arguments by clarifying the pro-poor effects and the pathways of rural tourism on both objective and subjective relative poverty at the household level. It also provides empirical evidence for improving the current anti-poverty policy related to rural tourism in China.

Rural tourism in developing countries has been regarded as a means for rural development, environment conservation and poverty alleviation. This study aims to examine the determining factors for rural households’ willingness to participate in rural tourism in western areas under the context of China’s rural revitalization strategy. Based on survey data from 22 tourism poverty alleviation villages located in the poor areas of western China, we characterize our results by stating that rural households’ livelihood resilience “push” on their willingness to participate, and that poverty alleviation policy perception and involvement “pull” on it. Among distinct livelihood adaptive strategy groups, i.e., farming-oriented households, migratory-oriented households and tourism-participating households, this study also revealed that buffer capacity was a significant driving force for the three types of household’s willingness. Positive poverty alleviation policy perception could attract migratory households to return to their hometowns to start tourism businesses; however, better self-organizing capacity decreased their willingness. In addition, both self-organization and learning capacity and positive policy perception and involvement encouraged tourism-participating households to engage in tourism activities continually. Finally, some practical implications and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

This study investigates the factors determining household participation in rural tourism using a logistic-interpretive structural model (ISM) based on survey data from 22 pro-poor tourism villages in western China. The findings reveal that, in addition to any independent influence, household livelihood capital and the community livelihood environmental factors have a hierarchical interrelationship that influences tourism participation. For low-income households, the probability of tourism participation is indirectly constrained by labor availability and community-level infrastructure and public services, with the community proximity to nearby scenic spots playing a deep-seated role. This study contributes to existing literature by proposing a hierarchical structure of factors influencing tourism participation and offers new insights into how these factors have implications for poor communities and low-income households.