Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Tourism has been considered a key tool for development in many parts of the world. In fact, there is a growing body of literature that points to the benefits of tourism and its role in development, though others have questioned its directionality – whether more development brings tourism or vice versa (Justicia, 2008). Despite these debates, governments around the world are promoting tourism and eco-tourism as a model of development in parts of the world (Ertolaci, 2001). In this paper, Yunguilla, a community in Ecuador is examined, for its potential for eco-tourism and how it has fared, in a pre-COVID and post-COVID scenario. Data from interviews, field observations is shared in this paper as a case study of alternate model of development, that can be seen as an exemplar in some ways, in integrating the local economy with that of the metropolis. Further, the study interrogates how this specific model of development – of integrating local resources, ideas and norms of production can serve as a possible model for replication across Ecuador and if so, under what conditions might it succeed. This case study offers us ways of imagining alternate futures in a resource-low setting, as the community in Yungilla has moved from wood logging and related activities to eco-tourism in the past 15-20 years, with great success.