Investigaciones Geográficas | 2021
Respuestas, resistencias y oportunidades del turismo comunitario en la península de Yucatán frente al COVID-19 y las crisis recurrentes
Abstract
The COVID-19 public health issue came to be just another one — albeit not just any other — among the crises of different nature and magnitude that often affect the tourism sector in the Yucatan Peninsula. A number of environmental, economic, political, socio-territorial, commercial, and sanitary vulnerabilities affect the tourism sector in general and the community-based sector in particular. Faced with multiple recurring crises, tourism cooperatives have adopted various strategies to survive during adverse periods. Pluriactivity — a historical cultural response of campesino (peasant) households to eventualities in their productive practices — stands out among such strategies. However, due to the long sector stagnation caused by the health emergency lockdown, community-based tourism businesses have seen their income reduced in more than 50% compared to 2019 and are formulating new responses, as well as resistance mechanisms, to address the dilemma between missing two high-tourism seasons, on the one hand, and avoiding the health risks of their communities and visitors, on the other. Major response strategies adopted by community-based tourism businesses include returning to food self-supply and supportive exchange of products among social businesses, as well as to savings and economic provisions. Resistance mechanisms include shutting down towns and conflicts within and between communities stemming from the reopening of tourism activity. Based on our practical experience acquired through accompanying 24 community-based tourism * Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos / CEMCA – UMIFRE n°16 – USR América Latina n°3337, Río Nazas 43, Cuauhtémoc, 06500 Ciudad de México, CDMX, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4419-900X. Email: [email protected] ** El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad San Cristóbal. Departamento de Agricultura, Sociedad y Ambiente. Carretera Panamericana y Periférico Sur s/n Barrio María Auxiliadora, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, CP 29290, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7778-5959. Email: [email protected] *** Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, CINVESTAV-Unidad Mérida. Antigua Carretera a Progreso Km. 6, C.P. 97310, Mérida, Yucatán, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-50852349. Email: [email protected] **** Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Tablaje Catastral N°6998, Carretera Mérida-Tetiz Km. 4.5, Municipio de Ucú, Yucatán, México, C. P. 97357. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-00028883-7328. Email: [email protected] + Unión de sociedades cooperativas Co ́ox Mayab. Ex. Facultad de Antropología – Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Calle 76 455-LL x 43 y 41, Centro, 97000, Mérida, México. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7039-7870. Email: [email protected] S. Jouault, T. Rivera-Núñez, A. García de Fuentes, et al. Responses, Resistance, and Opportunities for Community-Based... 2 • Investigaciones Geográficas • eissn: 2448-7279 • doi: 10.14350/rig.60240 • ARTICLES • Num. 104 • April • 2021 • e60240 businesses to face the ongoing public-health crisis — and given the still incipient studies that adopt critical approaches within the community-based tourism practice itself—, the final section of this article presents a theoretical reflection to envision the likely post-pandemic reconfiguration that a “deep community-based tourism” could go through to differentiate it from the multiple attempts to co-opt and alienate this activity, in the light of force-ideas such as proximity and everyday tourism.