Espacio y Desarrollo (Oct 2007)
Maras: pueblo en camino hacia el desarrollo turístico
Abstract
Since some decades ago, Perú enter to the arena of world tourism and the major interest isin Cusco and its surroundings with multiple testimonies of the Incas and previous cultures. Maras is a town funded in colonial times along the trail from Cusco to Urubamba. Nowadays the population work in agriculture, livestock, and salt extraction to sell in the region. Maras is also the start point to visit the Moray and Salinas andenes and it is calculated that through this town pass some 200 tourists daily. People are aware that they could offer the tourists some extra services and have additional income to better their living conditions. In 2002, the National Institute of Culture (INC) with the Maras Project put into value some monuments and orga- nized the Handicraft Center and later with the project Mejorando mi Pueblo of the Ministry of Housing some streets were paved. Most of tourists passing by Maras practice «tourism of adventure», they arrive on foot, in bicycle or on horse and it would be worth to offer them lodging services, food, and invite them to visit the town rich in history and patrimony. In this context, a group of professors and students of the SPGSE-FAUA of the National University of Engineering, in the framework of the International Workshop «Diseñando y Construyendo Procesos Participativos» realized in September of this year the awareness workshop at Maras«Construyendo juntos las perspectivas de auto desarrollo de Maras», where the people designed the touristic circuit of the town and has priory projects to the development of public spaces and training in touristic services, in order to be ready to work in this activity without abandonment of their agricultural activities.The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of Maras and their expectancesand possibilities to get involved in the touristic activity in the region.
