Links between tourism and local development

Vínculos entre el turismo y el desarrollo local

Abstract

This essay covers issues of tourism and local development, a theoretical and historical framework that seeks to find common points of view between these two trends. Speaking of local development is to address issues of governance, competencies, participatory budgets and the possibility of carrying out works, just taking advantage of this panorama and in view that, the national government considers tourism activity like a part of the axes of improvement, it is necessary that tourism be considered a viable strategy.

It must be understood that local development, goes far beyond an economic aspect, Amartya Sen, Indian philosopher, raises the development from a humanistic side, and deepens the well-being of the human being and the capacities to grow in an environment, so development is the freedom to access health, safety, education, leisure without limitations due to scarcity. Under an ancestral vision, the development is the harmony of the populations with the natural environment; it is the balance of the resources and the respect to the territory.

From a tourism perspective, the sustained growth of tourism worldwide is analyzed, with 2017 being a year with a great upturn in visits, the 2020 goals have already been met, more than 1400 million transfers and the trend continues to increase, Although the tourist reality of Ecuador can generate ambiguity, from 2013 to the present, the average growth is 14%. However, this essay addresses a particular trend, rural community tourism.
This type of tourism is developed in the countryside, between the communities and is precisely interconnected with local development in this space, since the unit of action is that, a municipal or parochial territory, exactly where the tourist resources are located and all those natural, cultural manifestations, and where the interaction of public, private and local actors is facilitated.