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“We must ensure that people have access to leisure, which is not necessarily vacations. I am referring to creative and edifying leisure, which allows us to learn and do things. And not just consume.” The statement is made by Sergio Rodríguez Abitia, president for the Americas of the International Social Tourism Organization (ISTO) and member of the advisory board of the Conservatory of Gastronomic Culture of Mexico.
The Mexican, with extensive experience in State organizations linked to tourism, private companies and academia, was one of the speakers at the recent First International Symposium on Social Tourism, which was held in Mar del Plata and Chapadmalal (Argentina), precisely two Places that witnessed the conquest of vacations by the popular classes during the first Peronism in the 40s and 50s.
At the meeting, which brought together academics, researchers and representatives of cooperative and mutual unions in the region for three days, Rodríguez Abitia spoke about inequalities in Latin America, the right to leisure and the need to build tourism that functions as a tool for transforming the reality of the region. And not just as the business of a few.
“It is essential that our people have access to leisure linked to the knowledge and enjoyment of heritage. Because? Because that allows us to generate family and neighborhood integration and construction of an identity. The ultimate goal is the strengthening of the social fabric and the dissemination of a tradition. In short: all things that do not necessarily have to do with money,” he added.
The social tourism specialist proposes a paradigm shift when thinking about the activity, with the focus not on “how much” (the number of tourists who arrive at a destination) but on “why.”
“The big question is this: why are you doing it? If it’s nothing more than business, they’re doing very well. But that why also implies other questions. Do you satisfy people’s needs for rest and recreation? Do you recover people’s physical and mental balance? If you organize things in a smarter way, not only can you do great business—we have nothing against that—but you can also generate a healthier society through vacations. I mean more relaxed, more relaxed, more integrated and less alienated,” she points out.
After a long weekend, tourist offices usually send emails to the media with visitor numbers. The logic, of course, can be summarized with a single phrase: the more, the better. Rodríguez Abitia raises the need to measure other factors, which aim to give tourism a social approach.
“Beyond consumption in restaurants or hotel capacity, which for economists is important, other important things are not measured. For example, how does that affect people’s well-being. Nobody in the industry does it simply because it is not an economizable issue; It cannot be translated into pesos and cents. The speech of public accountants beats us. The square meter is worth so much, I have to get so much money from it. The rest – aesthetics and ethics – took a backseat. The lives of people and groups that live in places are becoming less and less interesting. “Everything depends on consumption.”
Against extractive tourism
In that speech so mainstream As a tourism classist referred to by Rodríguez Abitia, communities are only important to the extent that they can add value to the process of consumption and capital creation. “This situation is clearly seen in my country, Mexico, where the rural population does not have a logic of industrial consumption. Since they cannot be incorporated into these processes, they are displaced and marginalized to bring in workers from other parts. This generates more inequality and an activity that is not linked to the territory but to an international process. We are turning our tourist centers into mines that are exploited. “This extractive economy that so many criticize is also part of tourism.”
Some of the most paradigmatic cases of this “extractive tourism” are in Mexico, Rodríguez Abitia’s country, where the word “acapulquizarse” is even used. The expression refers to the case of Acapulco as a kind of reference between what should – and mainly should not – be done in terms of the development of a city, which went from being a mecca of tourism to a capital of violence.
“Another example is Playa del Carmen, which is deified here in Argentina and elsewhere. It is one of the municipalities in Mexico with the highest rate of suicide and family disintegration. The vast majority of its inhabitants are tourist immigrants. The logic is to arrive at a place, exploit it as much as possible and, when it becomes Acapulco, leave it. It’s the moment when you say, ‘Something’s wrong.'”
The center of the discussion and the generation of changes must be focused on people, says the Mexican. Not only in those that travel but also in those that receive travelers, who live in the place and work in the sector. “We can talk about development only if you ensure that both visitors and those who live in tourist communities are well. If you don’t achieve it, there is only growth, but it is not the same.”
The great point of tension is how to convince certain public and private tourism sector actors, who continue to prioritize only numbers. “The same people who promoted this model realize that not everything is automatically positive but that it generated environmental and social problems that work against them. You can ask Acapulco hoteliers what they think about it. Surely, they will tell you: ‘We were wrong.’ Composing this problem is not so simple. Therefore, we must prevent this from happening and other destinations becoming ‘acapulqui’, with the only logic of lower costs and higher incomes at any price. “We have a problem when ethics goes down the drain.”
After a few minutes of chatting with Rodríguez Abitia, questions remain floating in the air. He does them himself even though he doesn’t have the answers. Why do we want more tourists? What is the optimal number of national and foreign tourists? Why do secretariats and ministries commit the “sin” of giving importance only to their promotion office? Are we selling tourists a city or a country or a caricature of the place?
In short, a good part of the discussion revolves around making tourism more sustainable and getting to the bottom of the concept without bastardizing it. “They gave tourism many names: ecological, social, community, gastronomic and a long etcetera. It is part of an enormous need to position oneself. Sustainable has become fashionable and no one really knows what it is. If you talk about sustainability and sustainable development, you have to work on the economic aspect, but also on the environmental and social aspects, which are the least worked on. That’s why we like to talk about social sustainability. Because there are many environmentalists who fight for the landscape and the animals, but no one defends the people. What is the point of caring for the environment and making money if it is not for the benefit of people?”
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