Author(s)

H. Rojas-Pinilla

Abstract

The UN WTO and national governments worldwide have been promoting Sustainable Tourism (ST) as a promising activity for alternative development, particularly for the Sustainable Development of rural areas. However, the Territorial Rural Development (TRD) perspective is focused on analyzing Power relations, namely how different stakeholders at various levels (local, national and international) have different possibilities of practicing power in terms of access, control and distribution of tourism resources in six main dimensions; social, economic, ecological, institutional, political and cultural. The aim of this paper is to analyze the UN WTO and the Colombian Government policies to promote ecotourism, and their possibility to effectively contribute from the power approach to TRD. Keywords: sustainable tourism, tourism resources, alternative development, territorial rural development, power relations, public policy. 1 Introduction The present article is the result of a research project funded totally by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Research Office in Bogotá, Colombia.

Keywords

sustainable tourism, tourism resources, alternative development,territorial rural development, power relations, public policy