Geohistorical analysis of the touristification of Quintana Roo in Mexico, in the last hundred years (1920-2020).

Abstract

Touristification is a process that involves many stakeholders who seek to create tourist spaces through mechanisms that involve agendas, policies, and discourses. The objective of this work is to understand the evolution of tourism from a geohistorical perspective in Quintana Roo, the state with the most striking development of tourism activity in Mexico, based on the analysis of the stakeholders and their participation mechanisms in the last hundred years. The methodology consisted of exploratory research combining bibliographical research and fieldwork in the area where the fourth stage of the process takes place, to characterize and understand the touristification process. In the results, four stages were differentiated from each other and each one with stakeholders who exercised various actions that promoted the development of tourism. We highlight the importance of tourism in the process of creation and appropriation of space, the repeated commitment to tourism as a force of economic development throughout the different stages of the process, and the historical marginalization of the indigenous population from the benefits of tourism. However, there are signs of a more complex institutionalization by community-based ventures in the fourth stage. The investigation contributes elements to the debate and new investigations are proposed that integrate the relationship of local stakeholders in the territorial models of touristifiaction.