Tourist solidarity economic circuits a challenge of sustainability

Abstract

Tourism has been identified as one of the activities with important advantages to achieve regional development. Nevertheless, one of its limitations has to do with sustainability. This article highlights the importance of considering socio-economic sustainability of this activity through the tourist solidarity economic circuit’s assembling under the principles of the popular and solidary economy. This challenge raises the necessity to realize on-site evaluation of how actors constructed their imaginaries about the possibility and the advantage of working in networks articulated through solidarity economic circuits; and, how the national and local state institutions favored or obstructed this purpose. It´s has been consulted about the favorable elements that the can be found in the constitution of these circuits in the tourist sector by observation-participation, surveys and interviews with actors-partners of these organizations. Among the main results that were found for the socioeconomic sustainability were that social networks and strong relationships between actors are of vital importance and also that the public stimulus should be oriented to both develop and take advantage of the endogenous knowledge related to these particular socio-economic interrelations.