DESTINOS TURÍSTICOS COM DESENVOLVIMENTO LOCAL ASSIMÉTRICO: OS “CENTROS TURÍSTICOS PLANEJADOS INTEGRALMENTE” DE LOS CABOS E LORETO, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR (MÉXICO)

Abstract

Objective: This paper examines the effects of tourism on local development in two IPCs, Los Cabos and Loreto, located in the state of Baja California Sur (BCS), in northwestern Mexico. Theoretical Framework: The Integrally Planned Centers (IPC) are tourism development poles established in Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s to promote economic growth in peripheral coastal regions (then) underdeveloped but rich in natural resources and landscapes. Method: An analytical-descriptive methodology is used, specifically the analysis of principal components, which allows contextualizing the evolution of tourism and development trajectories. Results and Discussion: The results indicate the presence of asymmetric development trajectories, despite the fact that both regions started from the same development initiative, with FONATUR (the Mexican government's tourism board) in charge in both cases. Forty years after its creation, the government's tourism policy yields differentiated results. Los Cabos has become a world-renowned destination, associated with sport fishing, golf, and residential tourism. In contrast, the Loreto-Nopoló-Puerto Escondido tourist corridor has stagnated and is still waiting for its take-off towards sustained development. Research implications: The IPCs of Los Cabos and Loreto, Mexico, are the result of a public tourism policy based on an exogenous development model, fundamentally oriented to "sun and beach" tourism, where economic variables are prioritized, to the detriment of social and environmental variables, which are important elements of sustainable tourism. A markedly uneven growth process is observed between the two IPCs, Los Cabos points out, which, to date, is successful in macroeconomic variables, while in terms of development it is very limited and lower than planned. Originality/Value: In the research, inferential statistical methods are applied, through the analysis of Principal Components, from which the impact of public tourism policies on regional development is measured. This instrument is applied to two tourist destinations that show an asymmetrical development, one of which was constituted as the second international tourist destination in Mexico.