Estudio de la entomofauna como alternativa para el desarrollo del turismo en el Ecuador.

Abstract

Despite the efforts of some organizations and projects, most tourism initiatives in Ecuador have focused on the observation of the most attractive fauna, such as mammals and birds, neglecting the entomofauna. For the situational diagnosis of the tourist offer in Ecuador, work was done by identifying tourist destinations, using the identification of tourist destinations related to entomofauna to measure their different characteristics. In addition, forty species were identified, which allowed the development of 40 entomotourism identification cards, which were used to analyze ecological characteristics and the interpretative potential, through the analysis of the Interpretative Potential Index (IPI), six species were identified that meet the established parameters, and are the ones with the highest score, with these results a logical framework matrix was used to subsequently create 8 entomotourism development strategies, To sum up, the results showed a lack of scientific research on entomofauna linked to tourism products in Ecuador. This lack limited the understanding of the ecological roles and potential impacts on the tourism experience.