Economic evaluation of the impact of cultural tourism in the city of Zacatecas

• Main Author: Alejandrina De Sicilia Muñoz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 2012-07-01
• Series: Investigaciones Geográficas
• Subjects: Turismo cultural; Patrimonio de la Humanidad; servicios turísticos actividades terciarias; Zacatecas
• Online Access: http://www.investigacionesgeograficas.unam.mx/index.php/rig/article/view/32472

This essay has the purpose of evaluating the economic impact of cultural tourism in the city of Zacatecas, giving special emphasis to its historic downtown. Therefore this work examines briefly the change recorded in the shift of the economic activities in the city, before and after its historic downtown was declared Cultural Human Heritage by the UNESCO. Moreover, the evolution of the city of Zacatecas as a touristic destiny is described, as well as the changes that have taken place in the expansion of the touristic services such as hotels, number of rooms, number of tourists, economically active population and the incomes inside the context of the tourist activity in the city of Zacatecas. Furthermore, tourism in México is discussed, initially aimed at promoting places with tourist tradition inside the country with the idea of exploiting the existent cultural resources; continuing with the geographical and historical context of the city of Zacatecas; and its touristic evolution as an historic downtown.