Creación de la ruta gastronómica ancestral entre las parroquias rurales: Río Chico, Abdón Calderón y Alhajuela del cantón Portoviejo.

Abstract

In current times, rural areas are looking for options to promulgate and maintain their gastronomy in the face of the gradual growth of modern gastronomy in urban sectors. Tourism is one of the fastest developing revenue contributors, yet it is a sector that also faces considerable challenges in surrounding areas. In recent years, gastronomic tourism has drawn the attention of many destinations as an alternative to promulgate its strengths with favorable effects. The main focus of this work is to develop a proposal for an ancestral gastronomic route to promote tourist activity in three parishes of the Portoviejo canton, Manabí province, specifically the parishes of Rio Chico, Abdón Calderón and Alhajuela; and to be able to highlight incentives and benefits on the value of ancestral traditions that are related to their native food and their culture. In this topic, an on-site diagnosis of the gastronomic sector is elaborated in the areas of greatest influx of the parishes in question, for which it was based on the documentary review of studies and proposals for gastronomic routes at the local, national and Latin American level. Starting from a relatively unexplored but growing academic topic, this research intends to propose an alternative that can be used as a tool to disseminate the undeveloped gastronomic potential in rural areas of the Portoviejo canton. A bibliographic framework that identifies issues of importance for the development of this tourism niche helps to form a qualitative research with the participation of local restaurants and establishments, which constitute an important group of actors with a conveniently broad perspective that ranges from obtaining food to tourist consumption and are also the main beneficiaries of this research work. The results underline the importance of the mindset, practices, cooperation between stakeholders and the promotion of the ancestral route, but also its interconnectivity and therefore provide valuable information for the planning of gastronomy tourism in the parishes involved.