A governance-based tourism management model as the best alternative for the development of sustainable tourism in the Rural Parish of Calderón

Abstract

Governance as the main element for the development of sustainable tourism in the rural parishes of Ecuador presents several challenges. In the first place, we find that the State, through the Consejo Nacional de Competencias (2016, p.7), restricts the tourism competences of rural parishes to the level of management. And secondly, and closely linked to the previous conditioning, we have that the scarce tourist resources of the parishes have undergone a process of stagnation in their develop-ment, or worse, a process of degradation of their environment, which prevents envision an immediate and sustainable development process.

However, elements such as a good management capacity of the Gobiernos Autónomos Descentra-lizados de las Parroquias Rurales, together with a good leadership capacity of their representatives, generate the certainty that promoting a sustainable tourism development process based on the appli-cation of the principles of good governance is the best option available today to achieve (based on consensus decision-making with the actors of governance) the economic and social development of the territories.

Thus, the proposal of a tourism management model based on governance and, fundamentally, on the application of its principles, allows us to propose a new model of tourism development in the rural sector, a model that will generate measurable results in the short, medium and long terms on the basis of the implementation of indicator measurement processes, which will show the successes and will make it possible to rectify the errors of management and implementation in the rural parishes of Ecuador.