Abstract

Five Quechua communities in the Lares district of Peru participated in a two-part study on a proposed community based tourism program focused on adaptation to climate change. First, data of the perceptions of community members’ and professionals on local tourism were collected using two sets of interviews. Second, the possible benefits of tourism to enhance the community’s adaptive capacity to climate change were examined. The conditions, skills, and expectations for economic development of the community members were taken into account in structured interviews. The professional respondents of the semi-structured interviews were primarily asked about the potential benefits of community-based (climate change adaptation focus) tourism in strengthening and increasing adaptive capacity. The value of climate change tourism is explained in terms of the value of the exchange of traditional knowledge and traditional practices of Quechua people, and the capacity to increase their self-reliance. Most, but not all, respondents expressed positive perceptions of tourism development, concluding that climate change tourism needs to be taken into consideration as a viable strategy for indigenous community development and climate change adaptation.

Presenters

Jill Huinder
Consular Officer, Consular Affairs, Belgium Consulate New York, New York, United States

Pavlina Latkova
Professor, Recreation, Parks, and Tourism, San Francisco State University, California, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Civic, Political, and Community Studies

KEYWORDS

Climate Change, Indigenous Community Perceptions, Traditional Knowledge, Community-Based Tourism

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