Tourism-driven gentrification in rural spaces represents an emerging phenomenon that remains scarcely documented in Latin America. This article analyses the gentrification process in the municipality of Malinalco, State of Mexico, through a theoretical-methodological framework grounded in Bourdieu's constructivist structuralism. Drawing on twenty interviews with key informants who have experienced this process since the late 1980s, three primary drivers are identified: the construction of the golf club, the Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town) designation, and the development of the metropolitan highway. The findings demonstrate that actors with high capital accumulation have reconfigured the territory, the real estate market, and the municipality's environmental landscape. Two original concepts are proposed: the local real estate broker and prospective symbolic violence. Water emerges as the central axis of the next cycle of territorial conflict, with significant implications for community management and public policy.
This study is grounded in a novel approach of sustainable tourism through the concept of the Tourism Cooperative (TC). Its theoretical foundation lies in the broad understanding of the natural world and environment as well as their interconnectedness with human factors. In order to establish a balance between tourism sustainability and human actions, four constructs were examined: market orientation, circular economy, innovation, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A sample of 108 tourism firms in Tenerife was used to explore the theoretical and practical relevance of the four constructs and their role in shaping sustainable tourism practices. The reliability analysis confirmed the constructs’ formulation. The TC model views sustainability as an ongoing and adaptive process that emphasizes knowledge sharing and power dynamics. Therefore, this research demonstrated that mutual cooperation among all tourism stakeholders is fundamental for tourism companies to adopt sustainable business models and thus contribute to tourist destinations being directed towards sustainable development. Limitations and future research directions concern mainly construct interrelations and the application of the study in different contexts.
Immersed in urban improvement processes driven by tourism, coastal cities face growing socio- spatial contradictions manifested in dynamics of fragmentation, polarisation, and inequality. The case of La Paz illustrates how touristification reconfigures urban space, prioritising the modernisation of the coastline whilst the traditional city continues to lag behind in basic services and infrastructure. Using a qualitative approach, this research captures the perceptions and experiences of residents, who assert that tourist-led modernisation has engendered urban inequalities affecting their daily lives and widening the gap between tourist spaces and those inhabited by the local population.
Community-based cultural tourism constitutes a strategic alternative for sustainable territorial development in rural contexts marked by socioeconomic lag. This study evaluates the tourism potential of the cultural and productive heritage associated with traditional viticulture and cuelcha weaving in the communes of Portezuelo and Ránquil. The assessment is conducted through a mixed-methods approach combining resource inventories, fieldwork, interviews, and community co-creation workshops, applying the Tourism Potential Index (TPI). The findings reveal high potential in wine tourism resources and identity- based festivities, alongside gaps in services and infrastructure linked to cultural and historical assets. The relevance of participatory design is emphasised as a means to prevent the folklorisation of heritage and to strengthen community empowerment. Cultural tourism planned from a territorial perspective with active local participation emerges as an effective tool for heritage valorisation and local development.
This review presents a critical examination of a book by anthropologist Esteban Ruiz Ballesteros (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville), an essay grounded in his extensive research on local and community- based rural tourism. The author analyses rural tourism from a comprehensive anthropological perspective that places human beings and polyactive domestic strategies at the centre, moving beyond the economistic, managerialist, and territorialist perspectives that have dominated rural tourism studies. The review also examines the notions of rurality, rural crisis, and community-based tourism that structure the work, and offers critical commentary in dialogue with the author's arguments.
