This paper aims to contribute to the academic research on tourism and poverty alleviation, by providing an integrated research framework on the impacts of tourism on poverty. First, a conceptual discussion is presented in order to understand the potential of tourism to reduce poverty, as well as different approaches to promoting a direct link between tourism and poverty alleviation. Second, empirical studies published between 1999 and July 2014 were critically analysed in order to generate an empirical research framework that embraces the following issues: geographical scope, level of analysis, tourism context, study methods and poverty measure. Moreover, an integrative discussion of the empirical evidence regarding the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction is included. The proposed framework, which is intended to be useful for guiding future empirical research in this field, suggests associations between tourism initiatives, the poverty rate and the economic, socio-cultural and environmental conditions of the poor. Keywords: poverty, poverty alleviation, pro-poor tourism, sustainable tourism, community-based tourism, responsible tourism.