Abstract
The aim of this work is to identify community the initiatives anchored to community-based tourism (CBT) in Ecuador with the aim of providing an overview of the current reality of community tourism in the country, in addition to publicizing the product lines under development within community initiatives. The methodology used is a descriptive analysis based on the review of secondary sources, which reflect the reality of the different tourism initiatives related to the Plurinational Federation of Community Tourism of Ecuador (FEPTCE) at the level of continental Ecuador. FEPTCE groups indigenous, Afro–Ecuadorian, Montubian and mestizo communities, who depend on their territory and have identified tourism as a mechanism to continue living with dignity within these territories, due to the option of economic diversification that is generated. Within the communities that belong to the FEPTCE, living with dignity implies achieving a good quality of life, which is not based on satisfying a series of basic needs, but implies going further, achieving the idea of “Good Living”, that is to say, reaching an appreciation of well-being, based on the conception of the full set of what culture is, in order to generate comprehensive sustainability of its spaces. Among the main results, the distribution and coverage that the FEPTCE has within continental Ecuador regarding community tourism is shown and analyzed. As a formal network of community-based tourism, it is made up of five networks at the regional level and nine at the provincial or cantonal level, which are analyzed in this study. The consolidation of the initiatives launched has been difficult with only 83 of the initial 121 being active and only 18 registered as community tourist centers. This case study shows that in Ecuador the network approach as the first step in the development of the CBT worked. Therefore, the development of the CBT must be approached from a network approach in which indigenous peoples (indigenous, mestizo, Afro-descendant, etc.) participate, administrations, the private sector, civil society, NGOs and tourist destinations, to which they must to join academic institutions by contributing solid data obtained through research that helps tourism development.
Highlights
Community-based tourism (CBT) is currently being developed in different parts of the world (Asia, Africa and Latin America) as an alternative to traditional tourism [1] and as a tool for the sustainable development of underdeveloped destinations [2]
Community tourism is a model of tourism characterized by the fact that rural communities are responsible for at least part of its control and receive part of its economic benefits [8]. community-based tourism is presented as a cultural meeting space, which allows for consensual participation, both of visitors and community members
The focus of this research was exploratory, descriptive and analytical, allowing us to observe that Ecuador is committed to sustainable development, tending to community tourism as a means for social development, the sustainable management of its territories, the revitalization of its cultures and the revitalization of the community economy, in order to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda
Summary
Community-based tourism (CBT) is currently being developed in different parts of the world (Asia, Africa and Latin America) as an alternative to traditional tourism [1] and as a tool for the sustainable development of underdeveloped destinations [2]. There is no doubt that research is very scarce and necessary and it is this fact that drives this research; it is necessary to understand and realize how the community subject plans, organizes and controls CBT, based on the criteria that emerge from the culture itself and ways of viewing life, to achieve improved community living conditions under the pretext of doing tourism [34]. The objective of this investigation is to carry.
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