Determination of the tourism potential of the Kichwas communities located in the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve Buffer Zone, Ecuador

Determinación del potencial turístico de las comunidades kichwas ubicadas en Zona de Amortiguamiento de la Reserva Ecológica Cotacachi Cayapas, Ecuador.

Abstract

In the western Cordillera of Ecuador, in the Andes, is the Cotacachi volcano, in whose feet there are seven Kichwa communities surrounding the Laguna de Cuicocha, also forming part of the buffer zone of the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve. Cuicocha, as an attractive star, registers an average of 180,000 visitors between national and foreigners every year, which represents an opportunity for the development of community tourism services. However, possibly due to the ignorance of the tourist value of the comuneros and by the scarce management of public and private entities, the natural and cultural tourist resources existing in the seven communities are in process of deterioration. In this sense, a study was carried out in the seven communities, valuing the natural and cultural resources through an inventory of tourist attractions, and determined the interest of the comuneros to join the tourist activity inside and outside their communities.