Tourist vocation and urban tourism management

a qualitative analysis

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the perspective of public managers of tourism activities in the main urban destinations of Ecuador concerning the approach to the tourism vocation of the territory. The research objective is based on understanding the application of the term tourist vocation of the territory, considering their knowledge of the subject and the relationship with the public processes implemented for the development of urbanized environments. The research methodology is qualitative, through semi-structured interviews with public representatives of the different tourist organizational models of the country, generating a significant and innovative contribution, contextualizing the reality of the state institutional processes with what is established by the literature and research in the area. The important findings are the existence of discrepancies between the conception of the term, its approach, application, and execution in the territory by those involved, since they confuse it with territorial vocation or tourist potentiality, in addition to a representative divergence between the tools used by each of the organizations for its determination, issues that limit the adequate approach of the construct.