Abstract: The ethnic minority areas in Sichuan province are extremely poor. It is arduous to alleviate poverty there. Through pro-poor tourism development over thirty-years, great achievements have been achieved. However, more attention should be attached to the problems occurring in the process. Through the analysis of the connotation, merit and demerit and implementation steps of holistic tourism destinations, smart tourism, rural tourism, culture tourism and educational tourism, we believe that cultural tourism and educational tourism should be given priority in tourism development in the ethnic areas in Sichuan, aiming to set examples for "all-for-one tourism", to expand the benefit radiation of pro-poor tourism, to improve the cultural soft power of ethnic areas, and to promote sustainable development of pro-poor tourism in ethnic areas.

Key words: ethnic area, pro-poor tourism, tourism development model, “all-for-one” tourism