Tourism is revealing the irresponsibility of the Government and society

It would have to be enough to hear that tourism could generate an income of 3,500 million dollars in favor of the population distributed in the national territory, for all of us, governments, direct actors and the population in general, to try to do things in a different way. Or at least, arouse curiosity to ask why that is said.

Tourism, in the modern world and after the pandemic, is an effective instrument to collectively achieve processes of social cohesion, sustainable development and generation of surplus, economic and symbolic. Tourism starts from the comparative advantages (those we naturally have in the territory) to advance and achieve competitive advantages (which will be the product of our work); The combination of both will result in pacts, agreements and the approval of public policies. These conditions, which are similar in any production process, gain greater visibility due to the number of actors involved in tourism, and the need for them to act accordingly. A taxi driver who does not offer useful and immediate information on a service query that he receives will be breaking the chain of destiny.

Although the tourist is a person informed about his destination (almost everything is on the internet) and normally the packages include offers that even cover tips, it is no less true that interests are changing and possibilities are opening up for experiential tourism, of a nature , adventure, personal relationships, courteous and proactive treatment. Bolivia can offer a destination of services and attractions related to the people and for the people, which would complement the one it receives from the overflow of Peru, oriented to the Uyuni salt flat, Lake Titicaca, the commitment to the Altiplano and Tiahuanaco. The other part of the Bolivian territory has the type of cultural, social and natural attractions that the world expresses interest in, and that is already being taken advantage of by intelligent societies. Colombia, by linking coffee production to tourism, has an offer in which the tourist pays the owner of the coffee plantation to pick up the coffee from the farm, sleep in it and eat what the family of the coffee grower is served. The examples are many and provocative.

The Bolivian objective reality is that the State, in its component of Government and society, has decided to have a harsh, hostile and absolutely belligerent relationship with tourism as an economic category, with tourism companies and entrepreneurs, and with the subject that dares to reach the territory. I’m not saying anything we don’t know. I will insist only on two situations that are absolutely destructive.

The Salar de Uyuni is our clearest element of global competitiveness of comparative advantages. It has all the qualities that the breviaries point out to value an attraction and a destination, and, nevertheless, the burning of the tourist domes due to surmountable conflicts a couple of years ago, and the recent blockade that ended in “voluntary agreements between parties”, As the public authority in the sector embarrassingly expressed, they only demonstrate the absurdity with which power manages the activity. To this case, we can add the government decision to impose visas and obstacles to the Israelis entering Rurrenabaque, until destiny is destroyed. And the list goes on.

The second is the inveterate and relentless practice of the blockade, and that, without qualifying the causes, annuls the planning of arrivals and returns, and incorporates a very high margin of insecurity, uncertainty and violence; obviously these situations are incompatible with tourism, which on the contrary is an instrument of human relations, respect for the culturally different and manifest and express care of the other.

A few days ago, I shared this concern on social networks, naming President Luis Arce. I reiterate the question I asked, with whom can you talk so as not to continue harming so much and so badly? Working in the territory, seeing the potential, the will of the people, and recognizing two realities, that of the confrontational discourse and of those who work in the field, the pending question is: will it remain to encourage tourism where it can and is already advancing on routes like Chiquitos, Pantanal, Chaco, Amazonia, wine and singani, and increasingly, coffee?

We know that as long as this scenario is not changed, the international rating will affect the Bolivian destination due to its high risk. Recognizing also that it is not humane to condemn the tourism initiative to inaction and failure, when the communities, territories, municipalities and businessmen wait, and having made the human and economic investment, will those who make up the sector have to make a strike, a blockade and a hunger strike, to be heard? Knowing that the answer is a resounding No, the question becomes a paradox that still has no one to solve with.