Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism 3049 Perceived Benefits of Micro and Small Enterprises in Developing Pro-Poor Tourism Rudrendu RAY Department of Marketing, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh rudra@ru.ac.bd Sazu SARDAR Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh Graduate Fellow, Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Program, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand ORCID: 0000-0002-8572-9081 Corresponding author: sazu.thm@ru.ac.bd, sazu.s@ku.th Fidella Nga Huong TIEW Faculty of Business, Curtin University, Malaysia fidella.t@curtin.edu.my Samuel Folorunso ADEYINKA-OJO Faculty of Business, Curtin University, Malaysia samuel.adey@curtin.edu.my Shital Sohani CHITRA Department of Marketing, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh shital.sohani@ru.ac.bd Md. Abdul ALIM Department of Marketing, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh m_alim@ru.ac.bd Sanjana SOBHAN Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh and sanjana.thm@ru.ac.bd Article info: Received 27 April 2023; Received in revised form 26 May 2023; Accepted for publication 26 October 2023; Published 29 December 2023. Copyright© 2023 The Author(s). Published by ASERS Publishing 2023. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of CC-BY 4.0 license. Abstract: Pro-poor tourism (PPT) is revealed as a significant means of reducing poverty. However, inadequate awareness about the relationship between the poor local communities and the perceived benefits deriving from the tourism MSEs prevents the application of the PPT approach. Thus, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this paper examines how tourism Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) benefit poor communities. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data from 25 participants through semi-structured questionnaires and using NVivo12 software data was analyzed. The study found that the economic benefits focus on the standard of living, employment, tourism network and business expansion while social recognition and environmental awareness, which have a big impact on society, are marked as the novel outcomes which trigger the local communities for being engaged in tourism MSEs as non-economic benefits. This study could help the policymakers of developing countries to eradicate poverty and achieve Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2 (Zero Poverty and No Hunger). Keywords: pro-poor tourism; micro and small enterprises; perceived benefits; local community; theory of planned behaviour. JEL Classification: L83; L26; G41; H70; D11. Introduction Pro-poor tourism is a type of tourism that aims to help underprivileged communities in a given area. Economic, livelihood, and empowerment benefits can all be derived from pro-poor tourism, as well as training and learning DOI: https://doi.org/10.14505/jemt.v14.8(72).06