Handicrafts and their real impact on tourism

Abstract

Handicrafts are an important resource for tourists who like to appreciate popular expressions of art in different materials. For this reason, the handicraft of vegetable fiber (perlilla shrub) that is made in Ecuador, is a cultural and natural product that reproduces pieces such as deer, baskets, ducks and swans, but above all births, angels, sleighs and Santa Claus, which are figures associated with Christmas (period of the year in which these crafts are sold).

The binomial natural resources and culture has been successful in other countries that have seen increase the economic income of their rural populations with projects that highlight the cultural peculiarities of its people and the natural beauties of its environment. Some examples are found in Bahia, where the art and historical heritage of this city is promoted as a tourist attraction, or the case of Spain with a wide range of rural tourism based on gastronomy, associated with parties, religious events and social events, which attracts numerous tourists tasters of traditional food, who follow gastronomic routes of typical products.

The mass tourism was considered that the only ones who had free time were an elite that could also have economic resources to practice tourism. Today the phenomenon has spread to all social classes to a greater or lesser extent.