Living at the heart of the Cajas Massif Biosphere Area and aiming for sustainable development through tourism.
Description of the study case
Migüir is a settlement that belongs to the parish government of Molleturo. The community of Migüir in the year 2020 has 111 people. Its inhabitants are dedicated to cow breeding, fish farming and gastronomy (trout is an important element).
Most of the members of the community have family ties and have developed a tourist offer in an empirical way. They have restaurants, lodging, guided tours through this Andean area and even a tarabita (extreme sport). It is located to the west of the city of Cuenca.
This community is crossed by the road that connects Cuenca with Guayaquil and borders the Cajas National Park. In addition, in this area there are some sections of the QhapaqÑan (Camino Real Andino or also called Camino del Inca), which was declared a Multinational World Heritage by UNESCO in 2014.
The community of Migüir is looking for ways to improve its organization to participate more profitably in the tourist influx that reaches the neighboring Cajas National Park.
Therefore, the Migüir Community is aware of the environmental demands that must prevail in the area and the challenges this poses for the level of quality of services that must be offered to the visitor. For this reason, they are looking for ways to improve their organization in order to participate more profitably in the tourist influx that reaches the neighboring Cajas National Park.
Among other aspects, the community needs to improve the management of waste products from their productive activities, as well as strengthen their capacity to respond to accidents or mishaps during excursions.
On the other hand, they do not have a defined target tourism market. They simply welcome travelers coming or going from Guayaquil. Lately they have found a business opportunity in their accommodations through the online platform Airbnb, although they aspire to reach a more formal point.
Although they have organized and established the "Migüir Tourism Association", they still do not have an established legal figure. To finance their organizational strengthening process they have carried out activities such as raffles and festivals. The funds raised by these activities are divided among the members, although most of the income is used to create the legal entity, carry out procedures and also for some tourism promotion through brochures and social networks.
In summary, although the tourism initiative has a level of organization, the idea that promotion is the key aspect for its development still prevails.
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Source: initial information on the Pilot Project generated by the international team of the PREIT-Tour platform in May 2020.