A Study of the Mechanisms of Path Dependency in Tourism Poverty Alleviation Based on Grounded Theory —Taking Guangxi as an example

ABSTRACTThis study applies grounded theory to explore path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation and constructs a model of the mechanisms of path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation in China. We find that path dependency mainly manifests at the levels of the government, tourism enterprises, and residents living in poverty, and it can be classified into cognitive path dependency; economic path dependency; institutional path dependency and technical path dependency. This study also finds that the formation of path dependency in tourism poverty alleviation is a long-term process. Different types of path dependency may have different effects on tourism poverty alleviation performance. In the face of non-optimal path dependency that may exert negative impacts, we recommend breaking through path dependency to achieve path creation.KEYWORDS: Tourism poverty alleviationpath dependencymechanismsgrounded theoryGuangxi Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. The first secretary for poverty alleviation refers to the party members selected from outstanding young cadres and reserve cadres of organs at all levels, outstanding staff members of state-owned enterprises and public institutions, and cadres who previously stepped down from leading positions due to age and have not yet retired to serve as the heads of party organizations in villages (generally weakly organized and impoverished villages).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the China National Social Science Fund [No. 16XJL006]; Guangxi Philosophy and Social Science Research Project [No.22FJY035]; Middle / Young aged Teachers’ Research Ability Improvement Project of Guangxi Higher Education [No.2022KY0071].