Turismo rural como estrategia de desarrollo local. Caso Parroquia Mulaló, Cantón Latacunga.

Abstract

A model to exploit the Rural Tourism associated to local development was defined in Mulaló village from Latacunga canton, Cotopaxi Province. Thus, the bibliographic and field research techniques were used which developed systemic theories at an analytical and participatory level. It started from the description of the territory context, defining the elements of a tourism diagnosis such as governance, demand, receiving community, tourist attractions, services and infrastructure based on bibliographic and statistical documents. The development issue of the rural areas was described through four central concepts: local economic and productive development; land-use planning and infrastructure development: social, human, capital, and institutional development; as well as articulation of actors and participation. Finally, through the methodology of soft systems, the rural tourism model was systematically structured with the description of each one of its elements, its functions within the system and the results. It is concluded that from a point of view of potentialities and weaknesses, the rural tourism in all its contexts constitutes not only a tool for the sustainability of resources and productivity, but it is also possible to boost them in a articulated way with the region, province and village development plans, this validated the case study in Mulaló village, Latacunga canton. For the application of the tourism exploit model in the selected rural areas, it is recommended to focus on the analysis of the local context from the tourist system point of view as well as the development axis, in order to clearly define is conditions.