Perception of the impacts of tourism in developing countries: The case of the perceptions of tourism stakeholders in Morocco

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries. Currently, the global trend in tourism is in the form of a movement from developed countries to underdeveloped parts of the world. For this reason, tourism is regarded as an important means for the development and poverty alleviation for developing nations. In this thesis, through a study in the particular setting of Morocco, a search was made to answer the questions: "How is tourism perceived by the stakeholders of the tourism industry, with regard to its power to bring about a positive change in a developing country?", and "What are the challenges faced along this path?". For this purpose, based on a literature review on the topic, a research framework was developed encompassing the most common problems of a developing country- namely inequality, corruption, lack of infrastructure and the absence of an environmental sustainability plan. In the study, for each of these problems, the positive impacts of tourism as well as the accompanying challenges were studied, as perceived by the research sample which is composed of stakeholders in various positions related to tourism in the country. The key conclusion of the thesis is that tourism is perceived as a valuable force helping in the reduction of poverty, It has a positive influence on the development of infrastructure and environmental prosperity of the developing world. However, it is also perceived as force posing challenges such as corruption in the country. The overall conclusion of this study is that tourism, on the whole, in a developing country, when it is practiced with caution, it has a beneficial positive impact.