Abstract
This chapter aims to analyze the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have played in the processes of adaptation, learning, and tourist reactivation in rural areas, in the context of the pandemic caused by the spread of the zoonotic virus SARS-Cov-2. For this, a case study of the rural tourism offer was developed that includes the experiences of nine community tourism enterprises, settled in indigenous territories of the Central Mexican Highlands. The research approach was qualitative, and it was proposed to systematize the experiences that the enterprises have accumulated throughout the pandemic and during the process of social isolation. It is concluded that the use and exploitation of ICTs in rural areas is still incipient, in terms of their potential as tools for the promotion, marketing, and positioning of rural tourist destinations. It is necessary to overcome the technological gap in the context of the new socioeconomic characteristics that rural tourism will face, many of which will remain in force in the medium and long terms.
TopIntroduction
The advance of globalization in the different spheres of human life has caused adverse effects, especially in rural areas. Rural citizens had to develop strategies to mitigate negative impacts, including the implementation of activities such as tourism, based on the territory's multifunctionality (Gerritsen, 2014). The development of these new activities has led to economic, social, cultural, and political changes in rural areas. These changes have given rise to rural societies in transition (Djanibekov et al., 2014), where the logics of negotiation and consensus are the organizing principle of the different interests that derive from a multifunctional perspective of the territory (Reig, 2002).
In this way, the rural territories have gone from an exclusive model of primary production to a mixed one, which incorporates secondary activities and services, diversifies family income (Schneider, 2009), and develops its economic potential. Rural tourism has been studied from very different perspectives, among which its conceptualization, limitations, importance, and links with other productive activities predominate. From its conception as an activity-oriented to the urban middle class, rural tourism is presented as a development tool (Pratt, 2014).
In countries like Mexico, the conceptualization of rural tourism as a development tool (Zapata et al., 2011) is due to the very nature of their rural territories, where traditional forms of organization and collective land tenure predominate, a motive for which they must be approached from the perspective of social enterprise and rural development. However, it is also essential to consider that rural tourism is a market-oriented product (Briedenhann & Butts, 2006).
Given that a large part of rural tourism definitions implies a broad conception like any tourist practice developed in rural areas, the conception of the specific spatial dimension where this modality of tourism occurs is a fundamental question. In developing countries, rural tourism plays an essential role in rural development (Reddy & Shilpa, 2016) based on the incentive of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that contribute to a rural region's socio-economic development.
Rural tourism can generate multiple benefits, among which it stands out: the generation of new jobs, the creation of alternative sources of income, stimulating regional development, promoting social inclusion, stimulating territorial innovation, and diversifying the national tourism product. However, the consolidation of rural tourism implies that rural citizens move from a model of agricultural production to another that incorporates the provision of rural tourism services. These adaptation processes imply constant negotiation processes, commitments, and changes (Xue & Kerstetter, 2019).
Meanwhile, the global health crisis associated with COVID-19 has highlighted the tremendous technological lag in rural areas and generated various economic and social impacts on the tourism sector (Romagosa, 2020). Given the untimely nature with which the spread of the virus escalated to the level of a pandemic, the study of local governance processes was privileged since the crisis associated with COVID-19 leads to thinking about the need to reactivate local economies as a response to the economic slowdown and social uncertainty (Cadena et al., 2020; Thomé-Ortiz, 2020).
According to Gaffney & Eeckels (2020), the tourism and hospitality sectors have been among the main affected by the pandemic, generating significant adverse effects on the national economies of countries like Mexico, whose Gross Domestic Product depends, to a large extent, on tourism activity (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2017). In this sense, it can be pointed out that rural tourism has also been affected by the pandemic, but it is precisely this proximity and non-crowded tourism from which the tourist reactivation can begin in the post-pandemic period (Seraphin & Dosquet, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Socio-Digital Networks: Socio-digital networks are structures formed on the Internet by people or organizations that connect based on shared interests or values. Through them, relationships between individuals or companies are created quickly, without hierarchy or physical limits.
Social Economy: It refers to the relations of production and distribution organized by the principle of solidarity and does not pursue profit. It is a sector of the economy that would be halfway between the private and public sectors.
Central Mexican Highlands: It is a natural region that makes up the central part of Mexico. It is found between the Western and Eastern Sierras Madre and the south with the Neovolcanic Axis.
ICTs: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are tools related to the transmission, processing, and digitized storage of information.
Resilience: Ability to adapt slightly with positive results in the face of adverse situations.
Rural Tourism: Tourist activity developed in a rural or natural space, usually in small towns or outside the urban area in larger towns.
Rural Societies in Transition: It refers to rural societies that have new commercial, cultural, and political articulations with the urban space, based on models of multifunctionality and pluriactivity. They are characterized by the transition towards productive schemes that incorporate tertiary activities such as tourism.