Tourism an alternative local development. Potential Corridor Santa Barbara, Ecuador

Abstract

The present work makes a description of the tourist potential of the Corridor of Santa Barbara, in Azuay, Ecuador. It begins with a theoretical debate on local development, and the role of tourism as an income and employment generating source for some underdeveloped world economies, it also makes reference to the theoretical elements that approach the sustainability of the tourism activity. An inventory of the tourist attractions of the area of study is conducted, yielding 39 cultural manifestations and natural sites which are an important potential, having several World and national heritages, archaeological sites, gastronomy, religious festivals, crafts and ancient techniques like IKAT used in the elaboration of Macanas. Several protected natural areas and sites with very little human intervention also complement the offer with great potential for nature tourism or ecotourism.Although it could be detected that the 59\% of the attractions, which are accounted for, have alterations in their conservation, it is considered that the territory is a potential for the development of cultural products enriched with activities of nature tourism or ecotourism.