A review of Indigenous tourism in Latin America: reflections on an anthropological study of Guna tourism (Panama)

ABSTRACT

Using ethnographic examples from long-term anthropological fieldwork with members of the Guna communities of Panama, undertaken between 2003 and 2013, this paper critically evaluates the effects of tourism on Indigenous communities in Latin America from a new theoretical perspective. It focuses on how some Latin American Indigenous groups are developing a new responsible way of producing tourism, exemplified by the Guna case. The Guna sustainable tourism model is an illuminating example of good practices in Indigenous tourism. Tourism is now not viewed as a threat for Indigenous groups but as an opportunity for the empowerment and development of communities, thanks to the establishment of a new link between the local and global in tourism arenas. The author's research findings reveal that the success of this sustainable and responsible Indigenous tourism model is supported by (1) the local control of resource access; (2) Indigenous resistance to external sociocultural control and the resultant refusal to accept predatory tourism models; and (3) the resilience, adaptation and cultural capital of Indigenous groups. The paper provides suggestions for a more appropriate Indigenous tourism development and for a responsible “cultural fine-tuning” of their identities in the global context in which tourism is now managed.

拉丁美洲本土旅游：库纳旅游人类学研究的思考（巴拿马）

本文用人类学实地调查中巴拿马库纳社群的人种学实例，从新的理论视角批判地评估了拉丁美洲旅游对原住民社群的影响；关注部分原住民如何开发旅游新负责任的途径，以库纳的良好实践为例。研究发现当地成功的本土旅游模型有以下支持：地方控制资源使用，原住民抵抗外部社会文化的控制由此拒绝接受掠夺性旅游模式，和其恢复力、适应性及文化资本；并为更合适的本土旅游发展及在旅游管理全球背景下其特性的负责的文化微调提出建议。

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous tourism
• Latin America
• responsible tourism
• tourism impacts
• Guna Yala (Panama)

关键字：:

• 本土旅游
• 拉丁美洲
• 负责任旅游
• 旅游影响
• 库纳雅拉特区（巴拿马）

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the FEDER component of the European Structural and Investment Funds, via the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020) (Project No. 006971 [UID/SOC/04011]), and by national funds provided by the FCT (the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) through project UID/SOC/04011/2013. I am grateful to Professor Chris Gerry (CETRAD, UTAD, Portugal) and the anonymous reviewers of the first version of this paper for their important contributions to the final version, which also benefited from Chris Gerry's revision of the English. Also, I am very grateful to Cebaldo de León, various Guna authorities in Panama, the Guna people and my many Panamanian colleagues and friends, for facilitating the research, and for their hospitality, support and friendly collaboration over the course of the various phases of this longitudinal project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the FEDER component of the European Structural and Investment Funds, via the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE 2020) (Project No. 006971 [UID/SOC/04011]), and by national funds provided by the FCT (the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) through project UID/SOC/04011/2013.

Notes on contributors

Xerardo Pereiro

Xerardo Pereiro is a doctor of Social Anthropology and doctor in Tourism specializing in cultural tourism. His fields of research are the anthropology of tourism, Indigenous tourism in Latin America, agritourism and rural tourism, also border tourism. He is an assistant teacher in the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal) and a member of CETRAD (Research Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies – www.cetrad.info).