Is the financing of tourism by international financial institutions inclusive? A proposal for measurement

It is acknowledged that tourism can have a great potential for reducing poverty; however, the growth of tourism has stagnated in financially excluded areas because of the difficulty local tourism businesses have in accessing the financial system. International financial institutions advocate the promotion of tourism as a development tool and in the fight against financial exclusion. This paper presents a tool for measuring whether the performance of these organizations is inclusive regarding tourism financing. The results obtained from applying this tool to the analysis of projects in Latin America and the Caribbean show that the financing provided for tourism projects in this region is not inclusive.