El papel de la organización social local en el desarrollo del ecoturismo en México: un estudio comparativo en la Zona Maya de Quintana Roo

Abstract

Ecotourism, as a community development strategy, seeks to simultaneously achieve conservation and development, but its design does not usually consider the complexity of the local contexts where it is implemented. This study analyzes the role played by the configuration of the local and regional socio‑political context in the development of two ecotourism initiatives in the Zona Maya of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Using qualitative tools, the study compares two ecotourism initiatives. Our results show that the implementation of the ecotourism strategies in the region results in different ecotourism models, even in communities of the same zone. These differences depend mainly on the type of social organisation from which the initiatives originate, which influences their socioeconomic and environmental dynamics. The relevance of ecotourism as a generic conservation and development strategy, the mixed results of its implementation and the importance of the forms of social organisation in its development are discussed