TOURISM AS A STATE POLICY FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN , THE PROVINCES OF 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 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 defined: 1. Preservation and monitoring of resources. 2. Basic infrastructure provision. 3. Creation of the Tourist Observatory. 4. Quality. 5. Offer and value: Tourist Regions. 6. Marketing and Communication Plan. 7. Management.

The characteristic of this plan was the high participation of actors that make up the value chain. Dialogue tables were developed throughout the province, spaces where strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats were revealed, which allowed for a provincial diagnosis, whose main aspects were: − Scarce activities are generating wealth. − The State is the primary driver of economic activity. − Need for greater public and private investment. − Multipolarity of social codes that need to be ordered, and in some way, integrated. − An inadequate base infrastructure that limits the possibilities of tourism growth and development. − Highlights and diverse natural and cultural attractions with substantial risks in their preservation. − Need for an essential improvement in provincial roads. − Possible opportunity for Jujuy to become part and node of an essential crossroads projected North- South and East-West in the heart of the Southern Cone of the South American Continent. − Quebrada de , the main attraction of the Argentine North, controlled by the market and not by the Province of Jujuy. − Need to be aware of the natural and cultural fragility of the . − Harmful growth of tourism without the necessary infrastructure. − Need for value enhancement of the capital city, , as a gateway to the Province with substantial investments. − Enhancement of the Calilegua National Park and the roads that cross it. − Improvement of provincial connectivity.

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However, beyond having fulfilled many of the objectives proposed at the time, what failed was the lack of responses at the infrastructure level. Since tourism is not a priority for the high provincial executives, it was not possible to agree on the agenda between what the tourism activity demanded and what the infrastructure portfolio had to execute. Once the plan was in force, from the official agency of the province of Jujuy national funding was obtained to update it. Advised by the Ministry of Tourism of the Nation, Tourism Secretariat of Jujuy decides to adhere to the methodology proposed by the national body, for the update of the Strategic Federal Plan for Sustainable Tourism (PFETS 2020). The update included the realization of a series of sectoral dialogue forums in different parts of the province in order to obtain a participatory and multisectoral view of the activity. From there emerged more than 350 ideas which represented the kick-off to delineate the Tourism Strategy of the Province of Jujuy. In these forums, the members worked with topics that intervene and go through tourism, including strategic planning, tourism security, quality, supply development, promotion, corporate social responsibility, tourism information, education, among others. The public, private, academic, legislative, community and other actors related to tourism participated in the meetings. Although the design was completed, the process was truncated due to the change in management, without even being validated, either technically or politically, neither being implemented. Starting in 2016, after the new government was elected, tourism became a valid State policy, placing it as a priority among the activities that are part of a new economic matrix. The first action that made this prioritization visible was the hierarchy of the tourism portfolio, creating the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, strengthening and professionalizing the structure as a whole. This allowed that in the meetings of the cabinet the subject of tourism was always present with the supreme authority of the provincial executives. The mission of the official provincial tourism agency was created as: "To develop the tourism activity in a sustainable manner, coordinating and executing actions for the benefit of the community, rescuing their identity and valuing their human resources, generating a competitive tourism offer that promotes genuine employment and empower the development opportunities of its inhabitants ", and the vision:" To be recognized as a tourist destination of excellence and a reservoir of living culture, changing the paradigm of being the periphery of Argentina, to become the heart of South America ". The following goals of the "Cambia Jujuy" Government Plan were established for the 2015-2019 management period: − Protect, preserve and manage the heritage of the Province and its communities. − Make Jujuy a tourist destination of excellence nationally and internationally. − Articulate with the private sector and with the municipalities. − Consolidate and promote entrepreneurship. − In 4 years, double the impact of tourism activity in the economy of Jujuy. − Increase the average daily expenditure per tourist by increasing the number of overnight stays, as well as targeting a tourist with higher purchasing power.

As for the strategies proposed, the one that stands out is the strong commitment to the commercial airline policy, firstly through the improvement and expansion of the International Airport "Dr. Horacio Guzmán ", as well as in the signing of agreements to increase the number of flights and destinations that connect Jujuy with other cities nationally and internationally. In this context of integration of tourism spaces, Jujuy is positioned with the First Solar Train in Latin America, and second in the world after the Australian, joining the Purmamarca localities in Jujuy with Machu Pichu in Peru, Titicaca in Bolivia and Cuzco in Peru. Each season of its journey will refer to a thematic axis linked to the gastronomy and culture of northern Argentina and Latin America. In terms of the development of the offer, particular emphasis was placed on developing products that add value to Jujuy as a tourist destination based on the following policies: − Increase the quantity and quality of hotel beds, based on tax benefits for tourism investment. At this point, it should be noted that to date the province of Jujuy does not have tourist accommodation with five-star status. − Investment in infrastructure by the State: recovery and valorisation of the historic Cabildo, restoration of the Casa del Marqués de Yavi, among other emblematic heritage sites. − National and international financing for the enhancement of tourist attractions, construction and equipment of interpretation centres, installation of signage and tourist signage, technological support. − Development of tourism products: strengthening of vernacular gastronomy and development of extreme height wine tourism, regulation of active tourism, rural community tourism, visibility of meetings Tourism.

598 − Strengthening of human resources directly and indirectly related to the activity through training, awareness actions and promotion of the implementation of quality tools. − Increase in demand through intense mass promotion and multimedia actions.

2. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER

Both the Province of Salta and Jujuy devoted themselves to formulate strategies aimed at the market in which natural and cultural resources are being turned into products, and at the tourist demand at an international level. However, such strategies are driven by differently regarding the levels of each territory under analysis, observing an uneven development of the provinces with tourist attractions which are complementary and integrated into the same process. The objective of this paper is therefore 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 among the various strategies designed for the Province of Salta and the Province of Jujuy.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

We proceeded to the survey of secondary information and statistics provided by official documentation and representative bodies of the Argentine tourism sector. A survey was done among the institutions (organisations, companies and legal framework linked to the sector). According to the information obtained, the evolution of the sector in recent years was analysed, as well as the conditions that have occurred for the development of the tourism projects mainly in the Province of Salta and Jujuy. Trends were also analysed regarding the production capacity in this matter in the two Provinces. We proceeded to the analysis of documentation generated by the government of the Province of Salta as of Jujuy, investigating how the implementation of tourism promotion had been carried out to respond to the demand for differentiated products. Results Undoubtedly, the spatial inequalities of development have allowed the configuration of tourism-related programs that offer the potential for their sustainability; however, the main challenge of equality remains by putting that development into consideration. It should also be recognized that the formulated strategies are aimed at strengthening the local social role, as the State policy is aimed at providing a sustainable process over time, where natural territory gave way to policy formulation, and where resources natural resources are interwoven in a complementary way in cooperative processes at provincial level. Vertical and horizontal integration mechanisms were identified, creating a value chain from tourism to the final consumer. Processes are recognised that "distort" market mechanisms, and that restructure it in terms of producing differentiated goods from generating proposals of a unique character for each place. This also identifies a tendency toward the natural as an inducer of economic processes, to introduce the political aspect as a component of sustainable development, reinforcing historical-cultural aspects that promote a region on the radar of globalization and tourism on a world scale, which finds peripherally a space to transform tourism as a vector of sustainable development in the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy. It is recognized an advance and improvements in the relative positioning of the image of the Province of Salta in the national and international context as a receiving and articulating space for the tourist deployment. There is also a growing tendency to boost the sector in the Province of Jujuy, with a strong push in officials who projected Salta into the global tourism context. These results seek to replicate in the neighbouring province with same or better natural conditions.

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

As Alejandra Troncoso expressed, Salta was established in a first-class national tourism location and in the leading destination of the northwest of Argentina following a process of tourist valorisation that is linked to the design of a tourism and heritage policy that sought to consolidate certain heritage features of the city as tourist attractions and that enabled the development of a tourist offer, which allowed not only the visit and enjoyment of the capital of Salta but also other destinations in northwest of Argentina. On the other hand the improvements in physical infrastructure and the conditions enabling the access and stay of tourists have managed to enhance the spaces and tourist places as an attractive destination

599 for the target groups that require different places and recreation, strengthened by a boost to the hotel industry and to the services linked to gastronomy and transport, in a way that reinforces the presence of attractive offers recognized on a global scale and which positions a sensorial multivision supported by visual images, typical gastronomic tasting of the area, music with regional belonging, accompanied by objects and souvenirs of traditional origin. We can establish some axes from which it is necessary to formulate strategies. Among them we can point out: (a) focalization of tourism policies around the places of destination; (b) the incorporation of a governance model as a part of tourism management with empowerment processes at the local level; (c) adoption and implementation of digital transformation processes in the tourism sector, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship. However, the precondition of being spatially linked provinces bordering on their territories allows thinking about associated tourism development processes, as long as the governments of each province consider establishing joint strategies that contribute to the development under the integration of the tourist space in the national and international context. Tourism in the north of Argentina has substantial implications for the development process itself. However, it is relevant from the momentum of public policy and the objectives to be achieved, depending on multiple factors. It is exposed in the present work that from the political vision of the actors that sustain political power, a path to follow from a common destiny is inferred. In this sense we see that the process of formulating policies and strategies aimed at integrating tourism into the territory of both provinces will acquire meaning as long as it is configured as a system in the axiomatic sense; that is, formed by agents with different characteristics and incentives. The operations should make the rules of the game that govern their performance and the relationships established between them. We consider the provinces of Salta and Jujuy as autonomous decision-making units, which find an incentive aimed at associativity, as part of a strategy of economic-commercial development, to generate social value that results in maximising the welfare of the population. We understand this path as a necessary step that eliminates spatial competition conditions in the tourist offer, eliminating possible "barriers" and providing an opportunity to relocate the tourist flow generated mainly by international linking of tourism through an "imaginary border" of little distance between its places of destiny. From the associative process that generates the development of tourism in the region, a unique character in the attractiveness of people who demand new places in the world and a journey with adventures and flavours that will extend the cultural space and knowledge about the world, its places and its history will be acquired.

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