La gestión turística sostenible del patrimonio natural del Ecuador como herramienta para su conservación y desarrollo

Abstract

The boom that ecotourism has reached in recent years in Ecuador has caused many of the pro-tected areas to receive thousands of domestic and foreign tourists; those motivated by the existing biodiversity in them seek closer experiences with biodiversity and its culture. Howev-er, currently the administration of the natural heritage falls on a governmental institution, whose work is outlined in the control and supervision of the territories declared as protected, with sustainability being an area still unexplored. This fact can generate considerable negative impacts on the territory and on the image of these spaces considered as touristic destinations of a highly relevant nature in the country and on their capacity as a factor of regional and rural development. From this perspective the investigative object of the present work was to ana-lyze the different strategies that can be adopted from theadministration of the natural herit-age, to achieve a sustainable tourism management that entails a practice of a more sustainable and responsible tourism with the natural patrimony. of Ecuador, which in turn allows for greater development for local communities. In order to achieve the outlined objective, a quali-tative study of descriptive scope was carried out, where the collection of the information was obtained through the application of the Delphi method and with the application of a question-naire addressed to the directors / park rangers of three protected areas of the Azuay.