Cultural heritage and the development of sustainable tourism in the Eje Cafetero region of Colombia

Abstract

Heritage, as an element of culture, needs to be looked at in terms of its economic potential, and the opportunities afforded for local and regional economies to be reshaped. A cultural landscape, and particularly one promoted and prized by local people and incomers alike, may also serve as a heritage object. An undoubted example from this category is the area of western Colombia devoted to coffee-bean cultivation. Known as El Eje Cafetero, it has already received World Cultural Heritage recognition from UNESCO, and has become one of Colombia’s most popular tourist destinations. The Eje Cafetero tourist region is often perceived as exemplifying a sustainable economy based on existing natural resources and cultural heritage in the landscape of Colombia’s Western Andes. Local and regional authorities in the coffee region certainly boast plans and programmes for the development of tourism that recognises the exceptional social, economic and landscape features of this part of the country, and the ways in which they support this direction of development as opposed to any other (Martinez, 2006). In doing so, they draw on examples of other countries and regions around the world in which tourism is indeed a product for export (Getino, 1993). The aim of the article is to analyze the role of cultural heritage in the development of tourism in the coffee growing region of Colombia. It is assumed that the promotion of cultural tourism in the rural region brings economic benefits to the local economy.

Keywords

• cultural heritage
• cultural tourism
• sustainable development
• least developed countries
• Eje Cafetero