Abstract: Based on the field survey and comparative analysis of 3 villages in different stages of tourism development in the destitute areas of Qinba mountains, the effect of the hollowing out of the rural population after the implementation of pro-poor tourism from the micro level was discussed. The results showed that the relationship between pro-poor tourism and the hollowing out of the rural population was diverse and dynamic. The former’s improvement to the latter was not inevitable, but was restricted by the village’s tourism resources, location conditions, and tourism development stages; From the perspective of the evolution and spatial distribution, under the background of poverty alleviation via tourism, the improvement of the hollowing out of rural population had a lag effect and was seasonal in time, and spatially showed gradually weakening from the village tourism core area to the sub-core area to the edge.

Key words: development of pro-poor tourism, population hollowing out, rural tourism