Analysis of Digital Communication Strategies in Community Tourism: Case Study San Pedro of Vilcabamba

Abstract

Community-based tourism is a critical part of a growing city’s economy. With the arrival of COVID-19, tourism activity declined considerably, resulting in a loss of US$1.281 billion in tourism GDP. For this reason, this sector is seeking to reactivate itself by adopting the biosecurity measures recommended by the National Risk and Emergency Management Service. Given that digital communication and tourism are closely linked to project implementation, the general objective arises to analyze communication strategies in the community tourism sector of the San Pedro of Vilcabamba parish, Ecuador. A vision of the current state of community tourism in the parish was obtained, and the digital communication strategies used to promote the entrepreneurship route, an initiative that arose with the pandemic, were analyzed. It was determined that the parish uses digital communication strategies, although they are unaware of their application, triggering a lack of preparation in digital communication, mainly due to the lack of personnel in this area.