Strengthening of Community Tourism Enterprises as a Means of Sustainable Development in Rural Areas: A Case Study of Community Tourism Development in Chimborazo

Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo, María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, Sandra Patricia Miranda-Salazar and Nancy P. Tierra-Tierra
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Claudia Patricia Maldonado-Erazo: Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Riobamba 060155, Ecuador
María de la Cruz del Río-Rama: Business Management and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, University of Vigo, 32004 Ourense, Spain
Sandra Patricia Miranda-Salazar: Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Riobamba 060155, Ecuador
Nancy P. Tierra-Tierra: Facultad de Recursos Naturales, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Riobamba 060155, Ecuador

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: Community tourism (CT) constitutes a management model for tourism practice within communities, which was consolidated within Ecuador through the Plurinational Federation of Community Tourism of Ecuador (FEPTCE), with the Corporation for the Development of Community Tourism of Chimborazo (CORDTUCH) as the central network in the province of Chimborazo. This network, with 14 years of experience, has been committed to tourism as a mechanism for the diversification of the productive matrix of the peasant and indigenous communities that comprise it, integrating 1772 direct beneficiaries articulated in 10 CT organizations. Thus, they have managed to support actions related to land management, the equitable distribution of benefits, the valuation of natural and cultural heritage, and the organizational strengthening of communities. This support has contributed to the consolidation of “Alli Kawsay,” that is, working to achieve a full life for these human groups, generating an integral sustainability of their spaces, and contributing to the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from this other Andean perspective. The methodology employed focused on participatory action research (PAR), which allows for listening and obtaining information directly from key actors, recognizing the existence of knowledge that has not been published that corresponds to peoples’ ancestral knowledge. The aim of this research is to provide an overview of the current reality of CT within CORDTUCH, as well as the strengthening achieved in the community enterprises that comprise it. Among the main results achieved, it is highlighted that CT has become, for these communities, a tool of insurgency against extractive activities and the advance of the agricultural frontier that threatens these spaces, showing that the territories can be exploited under other approaches and through innovative proposals.

Keywords: community tourism; economic rural development; entrepreneurship; innovative proposals; peasant and indigenous communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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