Fonte: Turismo y Sociedad; Vol 29 (2021): Julio-Diciembre; 293-314
Palavras-chave:
Resumo: At the Entrenubes Mountain Ecological Park, located in Bogotá, Colombia, nature-based tourism is one of the main activities. However, despite a large influx of visitors to the area, ecotourism strategies themselves have not been developed. Furthermore, although this protected area arises as an initiative of the same local communities that use it as a recreation space, there are multiple on going conflicts such as the construction of illegal settlements, mining and the unsustainable use of land. Hence, the main values, knowledge and stakeholders involved were identified through participatory mapping, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with local communities and visitors in order to provide general guidelines for a future community-based ecotourism strategy. Results showed that the environmental value was the most important, closely followed by the recreational value. Nevertheless, local knowledge on the park’s flora and fauna was very low compared to lists and inventories of the area. A high sense of ownership was identified among local communities, mainly by the San Cristobal village. The foregoing, coupled with 21 stakeholders somehow involved with the park, suggests great possibility for developing a real community-based ecotourism strategy, as has occurred in other urban protected areas of major cities around the world.
