The influences of tourism in developing countries

Tourism is seen as one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economic sectors. Traveling towards developing countries is increasing. Therefore tourism implementation has been seen as a solution for developing countries for escaping poverty. In this thesis, with a literature review, a research framework and a case study about tourism in South Africa that tested the research framework, the following question is answered: how does tourism brings positive impact to a developing country? After the literature review, a research framework has been set up with 6 common problems of developing countries. Which are: poverty, lack of educational attainment, poor health, lack of infrastructure, lack of environmental sustainability plan and corruption. Positive impact and challenges for each problem have been established. The main finding of the thesis is that tourism helps reducing poverty, improves education attainment, and has positive impact on health, infrastructure and the environment in developing countries. Tourism challenges corruption in developing countries. Tourism overall will have positive impact in a developing country, when tourism is implemented with care.