As globalisation continues and the means of mobility are increasing, tourism has now become the fourth biggest industry in the world. Many low-income countries are perusing this opportunity by addressing tourism as a “tool for development”, emphasising that this will generate job opportunities and foreign revenues to reduce poverty. As the tourism industry continues to grow in low-income countries critics stress the harmful effects on the environment and social structures. The way that the tourism industry is operating, in most countries, is also criticized for not giving the promised results of poverty alleviation and not contributing to the sustainable development goals. The tourism industry’s dependence on suitable seasons, due to climate alterations, further complicates the sector, which relies highly on a migrated labour that can fill the surplus of labour demand during peak seasons. The lack of acknowledgment on social impacts and the additional complexities of seasonality turn critics to associate tourism with precarious and exploitative employments and weak linkage to poverty reduction. The state of Kerala, in India, is one example, where the government is promoting tourism as a “tool for development” and claimes to be a pioneer in pro-poor tourism approaches. These premises lay the foundation for this field study, which looks at work and living conditions, for seasonal workers in the tourist area of Varkala, in the state of Kerala. Fifteen workers were interviewed with the purpose of examine how the tourism industry is operating in Varkala and how this effects the seasonal migrated workers. The result is analysed through conceptual frameworks of sustainable tourism and pro-poor tourism and theories problematising seasonality and precarious employment. The study concludes that there are still many political and socio-economic structures in Varkala that result in precarious work and lives for vulnerable groups, working in the tourism sector. The study also concludes that the aspect of seasonality further extends the precarity of the workers and that problematic aspects of migration labour have to be incorporated into tourism policy. The study concludes that without strong coordination’s in line with pro-poor tourism strategies, Varkalas tourism sector have a clear risk of not being poverty alleviating.