El rol del sector público en la gestión turística de las parroquias rurales de Cuenca

Abstract

Rural tourism in Ecuador is an essential economic and cultural activity due to the diverse natural resources offered by the communities. It is the responsibility of governmental entities, especially decentralized autonomous governments (GADs), to promote and manage rural tourism by proposing strategies for progress that make it possible to establish mechanisms for socioeconomic reactivation in the communities. Based on this premise, the purpose of this research was to learn about the role of the public sector in tourism management in the rural parishes of Cuenca. The methodology used was a descriptive qualitative approach, through the in-depth interview technique, which helped to achieve a detailed description of the perceptions of officials belonging to public entities in charge of managing tourism. On the other hand, tourism providers and tourists from rural parishes were also interviewed, who indicated their perceptions about the tourism management of the public sector in the rural area of the canton of Cuenca. The main results indicate that the entities in charge of managing tourism in rural parishes do not manage tourism agendas, lack of trained tourism personnel, lack of promotion, no training for tourism providers, neglect of tourist attractions, weaknesses in the administration of tourism resources and attractions, lack of planning and management of tourism resources, and lack of training for tourism providers.