Propuesta de un modelo de gestión turística para los bienes patrimoniales arquitectónicos religiosos de la Arquidiócesis de Cuenca del Centro Histórico de Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

The present work arises from the need to value the cultural heritage of 11 religious temples belonging to the Archdiocese of Cuenca through a management model with a tourist approach as a means of development. A brief theoretical review was conducted, then the background of each temple was reviewed. Subsequently, the tourist value of each property in question was identified by valuation registration sheets upon the goods depositaries’ perception and analized with SPSS software. The problem was identified through qualitative tools such as interviewing key tourism participants and interpreting the data through the construction of semantic (hermeneutic) networks. In addition, the calculation of load capacity for each temple was generated. Finally, a management model is proposed based on the diagnostic tools used, considering the financial, operational, regulatory and tourist axis. Safety and self-sustainability of each temple are the biggest concerns for the operation of the model as a religious tourism cluster with complementary activities. The operation will depend on the investment capacity, search for financing, establishment of strategic alliances, creativity and willingness of the Archdiocese of Cuenca to opt for tourism as a means of development that provides sustainability to each space depending on the need for income to carry out preventive conservation of heritage assets.