La Venta: Potential Picturesque Towns Of Tabasco, Mexico

Abstract

This article presents a diagnosis of the situation of La Venta, a town located in the municipality of Huimanguillo, Tabasco; in order to determine its potential evaluation for entry into the Picturesque Towns Program. This program is intended to be implemented by the Tabasco Tourism Secretariat (SECTUR Tabasco), with the objective of initially recognizing twenty towns with a tourist vocation that demonstrate promoting and managing sustainable and intelligent tourism products.

The theoretical perspective of the study is framed in the paradigm of sustainable tourism in rural spaces, in a conceptual framework on tourism policy, planning and governance in tourist destinations. The approach developed is mixed, since it integrated quantitative and qualitative data through a sequential exploratory design. In a first stage, a description of the sociodemographic and tourist environment of La Venta was generated; based on documentary research. In the second stage, a descriptive transectional study was carried out by applying an opinion survey regarding the impacts of tourism on the community. Finally, the data were contrasted with twenty indicators resulting from the content analysis of three documents that support the operation of the program.

The results show that La Venta meets 35% of the criteria established by the program. In contrast, 30% of them need to be covered, and only partially, 35%. Therefore, it is concluded that, in the short term, the community is not in a position to begin the evaluation process of the Picturesque Towns Program. It is suggested to prioritize the needs expressed by the population and subsequently design strategies to develop complementary and integrated tourism products with greater hierarchies of attractiveness. As well as promoting a systemic, sustainable and participatory vision in the planning of tourism development in the town.