Agroturismo: Una Alternativa de desarrollo para la zona rural del municipio de Pamplona, Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Abstract

Agrotourism can function as a catalyst for regional economic development. Because its realization generates many positive externalities, they make it a powerful instrument of development and cultural diffusion. Properly trained and organized, farmers can find in this type of tourism new perspectives of development and diversification for their products. The objective of this research was to establish guidelines to encourage the implementation of agrotourism for the rural area of the municipality of Pamplona. As a way to help boost their regional development in conditions of limited agricultural resources. The methodology consisted of characterizing the agricultural route to perform a SWOT analysis. Among the main results is a proposal for the concept of agrotourism that basically consists of describing the commercial activities and potential services to be carried out within the agricultural farms, aimed at national and foreign tourists. Associated with the proposal, a series of tourist routes are briefly described as additional attractions for tourists. Finally, different strategies are discussed to implement the model of agrotourism in the valley, which consist of differentiating the tourist service, training farmers and stakeholders for each farm in three basic aspects: gastronomy, business and tourist service. The work is concluded highlighting the great potential that this tourism activity represents in this rural environment, suggesting some aspects of future research.