Mountain biking for sustainable development of local tourism in Ecuador

Abstract

The main objective of the research was to establish the benefits of touristic mountain biking for sustainable local development in the city of Ibarra in Ecuador. The study was based of quantitative type and the instrument used was field data gathered through a questionnaire. This questionnaire was applied to a sample of 126 people of the 420 participants of the Imbabura Circuit in the year 2015. The validation of the method was done through the judgement of selected experts with the Knowledge coefficient (Kc) and the internal reliability was assessed using the Cronbach Alpha coefficient reported by the software SPSS. As a result, it was determined that the city obtained economic, social and environmental benefits that have influenced the development of the city to become one of the tourist destinations of Ecuador. It was concluded that mountain biking promoted principles based on sustainability that favored local development through activities related to tourism that this sport generates.