As part of the inter-institutional cooperation agreement between Rimisp and the Prefecture of Pichincha, for the implementation of the Capacity Building for Tourism Resilience Project, our office in Ecuador elaborated and presented the Strategy for the Promotion and Development of Community Tourism in this province of the Ecuadorian highlands.

This project proposes guidelines for strengthening the capacities of local stakeholders, applicable to community and community-based tourism ventures and projects located in this jurisdiction. To this end, it carried out a number of activities, such as a Community Tourism Entrepreneurship Contest, which selected 10 winning businesses.

It also held training sessions on cooperativism for cooperativism to several representatives of associations dedicated to this undertaking and prepared a Strategy for the Promotion and Development of this economic activity in the province. and prepared the Strategy for the Promotion and Development of this economic activity in the province.

The presentation of this plan took place last December 7th to several actors from the province’s community-based tourism organizations. Eugenia Quingaísa, Rimisp researcher, was in charge of socializing the elements of the Strategy.

Its main objectives are framed in four axes, which aim to develop a governance mechanism, strengthen and improve the tourism offer; boost the capacities of the enterprises and build tourism marketing strategies. In each of these aspects, a series of activities have been proposed to promote the achievement of the goals set.

During the event, Andrés Valarezo, an official of the Prefecture of Pichincha, highlighted the importance of supporting community enterprises as one of the main aspects to overcome the impacts of Covid-19 on the economy of the rural areas of Pichincha.

Fausto Dután, representative of one of the participating associations, emphasized the need to promote aspects such as communication, training and financing in order to strengthen this type of rural enterprises.

The implementation of the Capacity Building for Tourism Resilience Project was positively analyzed by the stakeholders involved in its execution. Several of the participants in the Community Tourism Entrepreneurship Contest expressed their desire to compete again in the next edition, which the Prefecture of Pichincha announced would be held in 2023.