Rural community tourism: an alternative for socioeconomic development in the El Ostional community, San Juan del Sur, Rivas, Nicaragua

Abstract

Community-based Rural Tourism is a social and economic alternative to traditional tourism. This study aims to verify if the model of community-based Rural Tourism development applied in the El Ostional community is being managed correctly and thus check if there is an impact on improving the quality of life of the population, promoting the rescue of cultural identity. To know these aspects it is necessary to describe the socioeconomic factors such as organization, gender equity and the role of women, training, community economy and the linkage of tourism with other sources of income and subsequently evaluate its rural community tourism model. For this purpose, the Sentinel Site Surveillance methodology used by the Tropical Disease Research Center was applied that combines quantitative and qualitative methods, using households as the unit of analysis for social variables and sources of income for economic variables. Community Rural Tourism in El Ostional is increasingly important for the municipality of San Juan del Sur, so much so that, the projects of the government and the tourism regulatory entity, have the community identified as the main attraction in order to decongest the influx of tourists to San Juan del Sur. The tourist model of El Ostional allows the generation of socioeconomic benefits directly to the tourism cooperative and indirectly to the rest of the inhabitants.