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Faculty Advisor

A. Douglas Kincaid

Author Biographical Statement

Edurne Sosa El Fakih is an Anthropologist from Florida International University (2022). During her undergraduate, Edurne conducted preliminary ethnographic research in the Chiapas Highlands of Mexico, financed independently through a National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) scholarship, under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Douglas Kincaid (FIU) and Dr. Elisa Cruz Rueda (UNACH). Currently, Edurne serves as Student Research Fellow with EII Mellon Foundation at FIU. Edurne is pursuing an MPhil in Social Anthropology awarded through The Maria Luisa de Sanchez Scholarship from Girton College, at the University of Cambridge, where she will continue her research focused on tourism, political and economic agency among the poor, development anthropology, and the politics of exclusion.

Abstract

Tourism is Mexico’s second largest service industry and makes up a significant amount of the country’s revenue. Scholars have considered and described the impact of Indigenous exploitation on the tourism industry; however, researchers have generally limited their investigation to the social conflict between Indigenous communities, mestizos, and tourists, instead of providing sustainable solutions to an issue that has worsened with time. Parallelly, even though recent studies have suggested Slow Tourism as a development tool to the economy, their proposal does not consider Indigenous communities as active agents. We report the results of descriptive research design, considered from a transactionalist framework, from which we draw potential steps towards a sustainable and fair industry; this methodology allows accurate description of the Fast Tourism phenomenon. Through field work in non-participant observation and field notes gathered in the span of four weeks, the observation process develops in a three-stage funnel system, manifested in the appendix. This study aims to shift the current international and capitalist touristic models to fit Indigenous communities’ necessities and values through the implementation of Slow Tourism practices.

DOI

10.25148/URJ.010321

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