A Comparative Study in Argentina, the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy
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TOURISM AS A STATE POLICY FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN ARGENTINA, THE PROVINCES OF SALTA AND JUJUY Cesar Gabriel Moreno National University of Salta, Argentina [email protected] Fernando Faraldo National University of Salta, Argentina [email protected] Jorgelina Duhart National University of Salta, Argentina Valerij Dermol International School for Social and Business Studies, Slovenia [email protected] Abstract: Due to multiple variables, mainly the macroeconomic tourism activity in Argentina has been experiencing a process of sustained growth for several years. More and more foreigners and Argentines are deciding to travel around the country in search of new experiences. Such dynamics generates more and more communities throughout the country to choose tourism activity as a driver of local development. For specific purposes, tourism generates development expectations that converge in a proliferation of small tourist destinations identifying potential attractions among available resources and encouraging the creation of a range of services. However, it is worth asking: What does this tourist offer? How is the impact of tourism on local development visualized? What are the activities that are promoted as attractors for potential tourists? How is it conceived from the beginning? What is the state of the development and promotion of the tourism sector? These questions serve as inducers to evaluate the path established by local governments in order to analyse the presence of planning aimed at the process of growth of tourism and its economic, social and environmental impact. The objective of this paper is to analyse the different strategies designed by local governments and their articulation/integration into physical-geographical spaces with complementary characteristics, seeking to expose the degree of complementation and/or differentiation in the various strategies designed for the Province of Salta as for the Province of Jujuy. Keywords: sustainable tourism, strategies, development, tourist territory 595 1. INTRODUCTION Tourism development has been firmly consolidated as the state policy in recent years in Argentina. The consequence of this is the preparation of the Strategic Federal Plan for Sustainable Tourism 2016 by the Tourism Secretariat of the Nation, which has set the guiding parameters for a strategic performance that allows articulating all the actors involved in the tourism sector. The Provinces of Salta and Jujuy have natural settings and cultural landscapes presenting an ideal opportunity for the territories to consolidate the tourism activity and its growth resulting at the level of social and economic benefits. However, to be able to present the opportunity as attractive, it is necessary to have a plan capable of positioning different offers which the local territories provide at a supra-regional (national and international) level. In this sense, in the case of the Province of Salta, the strategic sustainable tourism program is aligned with a strategic development plan (provincial plan). To enable the continuity over time, the following objectives were formulated: − Maintain the leadership position at a national level and the position of Salta Province as a leading destination in ecotourism worldwide. − Promote a balanced tourism development throughout the Province in order to ensure that all the inhabitants capitalize on the benefits of tourism activities as well as allowing for correcting existing imbalances. − Generate new tourism products to attract new audiences. The impulse of tourism in Salta was anchored in understanding the relationship between humans, their environment and history. In this sense, four aspects or areas of work were projected that were being developed in the last decade: − About the set of natural and cultural attractions of the territory (cultural and natural heritage). − About the infrastructure and the services (both general and specific to tourism). − About the people who inhabit and interact in the territory of destination and who are directly and indirectly linked to the local tourism. − Also, about tourism organizations (whether public, private or mixed entities that coordinate, plan, legislate and manage tourism). In this regard, the Salta 2030 Strategic Development Plan recognizes a vision of a rooted population with a strong identity and optimum quality of life, based on an adequate provision of infrastructure and equipment, in an accessible and integrated territory, with the capacity to manage the present and project it to future generations with a sustainable vision. Thus, among the drivers of tourism in Salta, we can identify the creation of a space for articulation and integration at a supranational regional scale (Mercosur, Zicosur, etc.). However, the lack of planning at the regional level including the connectivity and accessibility in the local territories within the Province of Salta shows a position of relative weakness. That is why the 2030 Plan provides for the development of national routes that integrate the corridors linking different provinces and the population transit to the tourist destinations in Salta Province. All these constitute a precondition for the development of tourism that expands the services of transport, recreation, lodging, gastronomy, promotion of handicrafts, alternative tourism, sports, cultural services and entertainment. On the other hand, general programs applied to tourism were established in Salta, based on gastronomy, adventure tourism, sport fishing, magical places and program called Salta + Verde. To this end, several transversal projects were formulated, referring to infrastructure and accessibility, support centres for the tourism entrepreneurs, bank supporting tourism projects, training and education, tourist signage and connectivity in Salta. These strategies seek to consolidate tourism growth in the Province of Salta and transform it into an important destination in Argentina and a reference worldwide. For this reason, the improvement in competitiveness in the national and international market is established as a purpose that allows increasing the average stay of tourists, as well as improving income from the activity. Undoubtedly, the province of Salta has been conformed in a scenario not only from the territorial but also from its cultural contribution providing tourism activity with a horizon of socioeconomic growth. Within the province. There are the various subregions that express the province’s charm and attractiveness: 1) the region of the Valleys, whose nature exerts its shared attraction with wines that are grown in height; 2) the Puna, where the mountains unfold their history; 3) the South of the Province, historical referential place in the struggle for independence. They are strategically distributed in spatial terms, poles of tourism development such as: 596 − Norte Andino settled in the north of the province and comprising Iruya, Nazareno, Santa Victoria Oeste, where international ecotourism predominates, with landscapes that surround the reality and that provides capacity for community tourism and adventure. There, the hotel and gastronomy come off, themed mountain shelters, modern hotels and other accommodation. − Valle de Lerma, a different landscape that contains the carnival culture. There, the history, the culture and the production are expressed, sharing the gastronomy of the region and the Salta cuisine. The carnival centres, the Tren a las Nubes, museums, hotel and gastronomy schools are established. − The puna, with San Antonio de los Cobres, Tolar Grande and Santa Rosa de Tastil, is a natural space of international ecotourism, a container of sports and cultural activities, which give life to the history that the mountains enclose. Training is developed for tourist guides, rescue and aid centres for mountaineers, mountain shelters, accompanied by hotels and local gastronomy. − Norte Verde forming a subregion in the north of the province of Salta, a reference for international ecotourism, where the Yungas as a biosphere reserve assigned by UNESCO, becomes a green paradise, an emblem of the responsible use of the environment natural. − Valles Calchaquies, which includes Cafayate, Animana, La Poma, San Carlos and Payogasta, the leading destination in the Wine Route nationwide, and that combines wine and folklore as manifestations of production and art. − Finally, the City of Salta and its surroundings as a gateway, reception, tourism, and as a great exhibition of the tourist and cultural activity that takes place in the province. − Undoubtedly, the Salta + Verde program gives it a sustainable character as a vanguard destination, where the link between the man and the environment expresses the value of preserving environmental resources. In relation to the evolution of tourism activity in Jujuy, it is worth highlighting the historic change of management that took place in the Province in the 2015 elections, giving rise to an active intervention from the State, which inevitably had an impact on policies that they were executed in pursuit of the development of tourism activity. Since 2006 and up to the time of the change of management, two strategic plans were designed in the Province of Jujuy, the first called Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development for the Province of Jujuy 2005-2015 and the one that happened to it - Tourism Strategy of Jujuy 2015-2025. In the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development for the Province of Jujuy 2005 - 2015, seven strategic lines were