Regional Literature as Epicenter of the Cultural Heritage – Projections of Literary Tourism in Colombia

Abstract

The literary work of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Marquez, associated with “magic realism” and the “Latin American boom,” has fostered the management of urban tourist routes whose purpose is to reconstruct the spaces and events associated with his characters and memories in the Colombian Caribbean. The results of these efforts may be suitable for the promotion of literary tourism experiences based on the life and work of unknown local writers. The chapter describes the conceptions of literary tourism proposed from regional experiences, the original efforts of public publishers to promote the visit to Santander for recreating the personality and imaginaries about the Santanderean by the most recognized authors and the proposals in tours of literary tourism carried out by student-researchers when studying the life and literary work of the most representative literary authors of the Santanderean provinces. The research corresponds to the qualitative approach and the hermeneutic method, for which were contrasted the national and international scientific publications on literary tourism and the literary works that were created and published to exalt the Santanderean. Literary tourism is not a priority for cultural and touristic politics but is an alternative to strengthen literary creation and cultural identity.