FN ISI Export Format VR 1.0 PT J TI Customers perception and understanding of tourism as a tool for economic and social development and its importance in their decision making process AF Müller, Katrin AU Müller, K AB Tourism has become one of the main income sources for many developing countries, which also brings great challenges and negative impacts for them. The need and demand for sustainable tourism is steadily increasing and different alternative approaches have emerged. Pro-poor tourism aims at generating net benefits for the poor and is the only approach to tourism which puts the poor people at the centre of attention. This Bachelor thesis focuses at looking at the customers understanding of tourism and its impacts. It also tries to find out if customers demand responsible tourism and will look at the customers’ motivation of going on a trip. Although various literature about sustainable tourism exist, little research has been done so far for pro-poor tourism and also literature on tourism motivation is still at an early stage. The literature review is supplemented by a survey of berg-welt’s customers and some recommendations for bergwelt are formulated. ER