SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TOURISM IN A RURAL COMMUNITY OF SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, MÉXICO

Abstract

Through semi-structured interviews, observation and application of a survey, the perceptions regarding social organization, wellbeing in the community environment, and relationship of local economic activities were identified, of residents in Unión de Guadalupe, San Luis Potosí, México, facing the implementation of tourism in the community. Management is the foundation to promote, develop and broaden the tourism offer, creating and consolidating values in the inhabitants of the place themselves; community participation, gender equity, and collaboration from young people, are components that support the organizations in charge of the town to open opportunities for development; likewise, generating jobs, increasing the monetary income in families, and improving the basic services in the community, are the result from identifying impacts for the creation of strategies that can attain local development in the community. The methodology applied revealed that tourism is an alternative for the communities in the rural environment that have natural and cultural attractions, customs, traditions, lifestyles and habits that rural societies practice to become consolidated and to promote themselves in national and international settings.