The travel and tourism competitiveness index as a tool for economic development and poverty reduction.

This chapter first sets out to understand the role that less developed countries (LDCs) play in tourism at the present time and the potential for tourism to be a catalyst for growth. Secondly, it discusses the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) and the method of its construction. The travel and tourism competitiveness of Brazil and Thailand are examined as case studies. Thirdly, the chapter explores the potential effectiveness of some initiatives in support of the TTCI as a tool to help reduce poverty in LDCs. These initiatives include recommendations for widespread adoption of the UN Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs), that tourism services should be reinvigorated in the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Round and that tourism should be mainstreamed for development. Fourthly, the chapter explores the role that these initiatives can play in enhancing tourism's potential to be an engine for growth in LDCs. In particular, the initiatives are discussed in the context of recent research indicating that inter-industry effects can limit tourism's potential as a catalyst for economic development even in the face of elimination of barriers to tourism sector development.