The promotion of tourist attractions to promote local development in rural areas: case of rural parishes of the Portoviejo canton

Abstract

Tourism is one of the most important activities to promote the development of a town, country, or region. The planned promotion of tourist attractions is a fundamental activity to make visible and generate interest in national and international visitors. The objective of this work is to identify the processes of tourist promotion of the rurality of the canton of Portoviejo, in addition to characterizing its main and potential natural and cultural tourist attractions. The research has a non-experimental qualitative-quantitative approach of a descriptive, documentary type, a documentary analysis is carried out on the theoretical foundations of the variables, the review of physical and digital documents in offices and web portals of public institutions responsible for local tourism development, there are interviews with the presidents of the Decentralized Autonomous Government of the rural parishes of Crucita, Chirijos, Pueblo Nuevo, Abdon Calderon, Alhajuela, San Placido and Riochico to characterize their tourist attractions. As a result, different criteria of tourism and its importance for local development are exposed, in addition to identifying the different tourist attractions that the rural parishes of Portoviejo canton have. These actions will allow proposing strategies that make rural benefits visible and in turn promote a positive impact on their economy and the local development of parishes and their communities.