Welcome to Malawi : A critical study on the relationship between equity and sustainable tourism

Abstract: Despite the important attention paid by tourism scholars to sustainable tourism development in recent years, and being 2017, the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, this thesis suggests that there has been a lack of studies concerning the significant issue of equity within sustainable tourism in the current literature.  Therefore, this thesis aims to conduct a critical exploration of the relationship between equity and sustainable tourism. In order to achieve this aim, an extensive literature review upon the concepts of equity and sustainable tourism was implemented. In addition, this study provides findings from a three-month fieldwork undertaken in a touristic area in Malawi. The findings suggest that great inequalities of wealth and power take place in sustainable tourism. It is argued that a fair distribution of tourism benefits means the reduction of the salary gap between the wealthy and developing countries and to empower local populations to undertake managing positions.  Furthermore, this study suggests that more critical research is needed on the relations of power in the tourism field and the fair distribution of tourism benefits in order to achieve global sustainability.