Jarkko Saarinen is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oulu, Finland and Research Affiliate at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Chris Rogerson is Professor, School of Tourism & Hospitality, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Haretsebe Manwa is Associate Professor of Tourism in the School of Human and Social Sciences at the North-West University, South Africa.

Tourism is seen as a promising tool for reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs), especially poverty alleviation. The volume discusses critically the new role of tourism in global development and what lessons can be learnt and conclusions drawn from the utilisation of tourism for development and poverty reduction.

This book is an extended version of a special issue published in Current Issues in Tourism.

1. Introduction: Tourism and UN Millennium Development Goals Jarkko Saarinen, Chris Rogerson and Haretsebe Manwa 2. The UN Millennium Development Goals, tourism and development: the tour operators' perspective Marina Novelli and Alexander Hellwig 3. The Grootberg lodge partnership in Namibia: towards poverty alleviation and empowerment for long-term sustainability? Renaud Lapeyre 4. Tourism and development challenges in the least developed countries: the case of The Gambia Richard Sharpley 5. Promoting gender equality and empowering women? Tourism and the third Millennium Development Goal Lucy Ferguson 6. The Tourists of development tourism - representations "from below" João Afonso Baptista 7. Can community-based tourism contribute to development? Lessons from Nicaragua Marie Jose Zapata, C. Michael Hall, Patricia Lindo and Mieke Vandescaeghe 8. Pro-Poor Tourism: From Leakages to Linkages. A Conceptual Framework for Creating Linkages between the Accommodation Sector and 'Poor' Neighbouring Communities Dorothea Meyer 9. Tourism Chains Pro-poor Tourism development: An Actor-Network Analysis of a Pilot Project in Costa Rica V.R. Van Der Duim and J. Caalders 10. The effects of tourism development on the sustainable utilisation of natural resources in the Okavango Delta, Botswana Joseph Mbaiwa 11. Balancing people and park: towards a symbiotic relationship between Cape Town and Table Mountain National Park Sanette Lacea Ferreira 12. Can ecotourism contribute to tackling poverty? The importance of 'symbiosis' Jim Butcher 13. 13. Beyond 2015 - Rethinking the Nexus of Tourism and Poverty Reduction Jarkko Saarinen, Chris Rogerson and Haretsebe Manwa