Ecotourism as a Catalyst of Poverty Alleviation in Rural Economy in Cebu, Philippines

Inclusive economic growth encompasses alleviating the people in the rural area from massive poverty and vulnerability. The study aims to determine the indication of ecotourism’s contribution to alleviating poverty in the rural economy as a basis in formulating a tourism development plan. It applied the descriptive research design, utilizing a researcher-made survey tool as a primary instrument of data gathering. The research sites were in Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary, Aguinid Falls, and Bojo River. Using a random sampling technique, 70 respondents were residents and earning income from the ecotourism activities. The gathered data were treated using simple percentage, weighted mean, Chi-square test of independence and ANOVA. The findings revealed that meager income for selling locally-made products, as tour guides, providing transportation services, and through fixed salaries per month. The ecotourism sites in Cebu, Philippines had a significant contribution towards alleviating poverty in terms of uplifting the standard of living, providing a means of subsistence, development of social well-being, and improvement of social overhead capital. There is a significant relationship between the respondents’ educational attainment and source of livelihood and their perceptions on the contribution of ecotourism in terms of uplifting the standards of living and improvement of social overhead capital. Lastly, there is a significant difference in the respondents’ viewpoint on the three well-known ecotourism sites in the aspect of the development of social well-being. The popular community-based ecotourism sites in Cebu holds great potential in making significant contributions to poverty alleviation since it supported the local people to escape from hunger that is prevalent in the rural areas in the developing countries.