Sustainable Tourism and Development: necessary conditions to avoid poverty traps

ELIAS SILVIA, FERNANDEZ MARIA DEL ROSARIO, LONDON SILVIA, EDGAR CARRERA

Palmas de Mallorca, España

Conferencia; First International Conference of IATE; 2007

Universitat de les Illes Balears

To most Latin American and Caribbean countries tourist activity constitutes one of the most dynamic economic sectors as well as an important source of foreign currency. An area in expansion, this intensive labor sector could be considered as a way-out of underdevelopment for these countries. However, one of the principal characteristics in these countries is the marked social and economic dualisms. Hence, the elimination or, at least, the mitigation of these disparities is considered as a sine qua non condition for development, notwithstanding future generations’ well-being. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to establish a theoretical and empirical discussion about the tourism sector role in the development of a country with marked dualisms. Principally, it is aimed to establish the basic conditions needed for tourist activity promotion which, in turn, will make it possible to achieve a sustainable sector growth while eliminating social disparities. With this aim, some stylized facts are presented for the considered region, and sustainable tourism is defined. Then, a mathematical model is presented in which the system initial conditions are set out and those allowing for both the tourist sector growth and the elimination of dualisms. Finally, based on available data for Argentina, economic and social politic measures are presented.