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Microenterprise development has been lauded for its capacity to empower socially marginalised women and alleviate poverty. However, the high cost of microcredit due to the relatively high-interest rate charged by institutions poses a debt trap to microenterprises. The study presents a successful case of a private sector-non-governmental organisation partnership to provide interest-free microcredit embedded in a flexible training and mentoring program by Women of Will. The study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to measure the impact of such microcredit and mentoring models on women's empowerment and entrepreneurial growth, analysing what works and why. The growing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) suggests that corporate support for these initiatives has become increasingly sustainable, challenging neoliberal assumptions concerning the inevitable cost of microcredit. The case study draws on a realist approach to inform evidence-based policy by shedding light on the interactions and processes that influence the outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the exchange rate variable, a 1% increase in the exchange rate between the source country and Thailand is estimated to result in an average drop of 0.031% in tourism demand. (1) Graph HT ht I i refers to the country, t refers to the year, ln refers to the natural logarithm. i Annual data of tourists visiting Thailand from top thirty-seven countries from 2010 to 2020 are presented in five-year averages. [Extracted from the article]

Rapid advancement in immersive technology and the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic will catalyze Extended Reality in tourism. This research letter draws from Schumpeter's innovation theory to examine how the evolving market-driven factors arising from the magnitude of change in the tourism industry will accelerate innovation through creative accumulation and creative destruction for tourism enterprises leading to sustainable competitive advantage. Insights from this research letter contribute to how Extended Reality will reshape tourism and provide implications for tourism stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of deepfake videos, a new form of media manipulation, took the world by storm. Malicious use of this technology for fraud, misrepresentation, and abuse created more perils than opportunities for various stakeholders. However, little is known about Generative Adversarial Networks utilized by deepfake to manipulate videos. Viewing from the social construction of technology theory, we explore the redress of the adversarial purposes of deepfake. At the moment, there are more misgivings than credence about the possible application of this technology. Our research note provides a discourse on the rapid advances of deepfake and its potential impact on tourism and raises the call for research on the beneficial uses of deepfake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality has increased in China despite rapid economic growth. Income inequality could impinge on future development, leading to social tension or political instability. Our study investigates the short‐run and long‐run relationship between three important macroeconomic indicators—income inequality, economic growth and financial depth. We utilise a two‐step procedure of ARDL bounds and Granger causality for the analysis. The bounds test indicates the presence of a cointegrating relationship between income inequality, financial depth and economic growth in the long run. In the second step, we utilise the Granger causality approach. Results show a bidirectional causality between financial depth‐growth and a unidirectional causality between inequality‐growth in the short run. In the long run, results reveal that growth and financial depth determine Gini. Our findings provide support for the inequality‐widening effect due to economic growth and higher credit provided to the private sector. We find no evidence of inequality‐narrowing or income‐equalising effect in the long run for the period of study. It is possible that the government's inclusive growth policies which started less than a decade ago have not taken effect for us to capture the inverted U‐shape income equalising effect significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of blockchain technology could radically disrupt the global economy. As an emergent technology, blockchain is of broad and current interest in the tourism industry. Small island economies are at the forefront of adopting this digital asset and technology. For instance, the Caribbean economies are launching their first digital legal tender, and Aruba is developing a blockchain platform to boost tourism revenue. Given the velocity of adoption, blockchain technology holds significant implications for tourism development. This research letter provides a discourse on the adoption of blockchain technology among small island economies concerning the opportunities and potential challenges faced and offers practical implications for tourism stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]