Development, Tourism, and Territorial Marketing: The Zacatlan, Puebla Case

Abstract

Zacatlan de las Manzanas in Puebla is a magical town that is a successful case within the touristic model made by the Secretariat of Tourism. Its territorial patrimony is based on physical, environmental, cultural, and historic elements. Nonetheless, and beyond such characteristics, the capital of tourism in Zacatlan is gathered by a group of actors with power and economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital: legislators and business persons who make decisions and have a personal interest with tourist services; who can include, rule out, innovate, and canalize resources for particular plans, among other activities. Based on the latter explanation, we aim to make a territorial analysis throughout dominant local actors, their strategies and practices oriented to add value to the town and, at the same, time, to analyze the implications and consequences on the local population that is not involved with the tourism sector.