Ethnic Tourism as a Strategy for Poverty Alleviation: Insights from Guizhou and Lessons for Chiang Rai
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70730/tureview.v29i1.241391Keywords:
Ethnic Tourism, Poverty Alleviation, Guizhou, Chiang RaiAbstract
This article examines whether the Xijiang model (Xijiang 1000 Household Miao Village) of ethnic tourism–based poverty alleviation in Guizhou Province, China, can inform development strategies in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Drawing on policy analysis and institutional comparison, the study analyzes how administrative coordination, fiscal capacity, regulatory enforcement, and community organization shaped outcomes in Xijiang and contrasts these conditions with those in Chiang Rai. The findings show that Xijiang’s success depended on vertically integrated governance, centralized fiscal support, and enforceable spatial planning embedded within China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation campaign. In contrast, Chiang Rai operates within a fragmented administrative structure characterized by dispersed tourism authority, limited provincial fiscal autonomy, uneven land-use enforcement, and market-driven revenue concentration. These institutional differences constrain direct policy transfer. Nevertheless, elements of the model can be recalibrated to Chiang Rai’s institutional setting, particularly through enforceable revenue-sharing arrangements, coherent spatial planning, and strengthened community-based organizational structures.
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