Enhancing destinations' social capital for access to international tourism markets: The case of the Cajas Massif Biosphere Area

Abstract

Enhancing a destination to attract the desired international visitors and ensuring that those enhancements align with local development goals is a major aim for host communities. Thus, it is necessary that actors from diverse sectors and at different locations work towards common goals. Our aims are: to explore how to enhance a destination's Social Capital (SC) to access international markets; to test a Systems Thinking (ST) based Integrative Model (iModel); and, to discuss the relationship between ST, tourism and SC. The Cajas Massif Biosphere Area (CMBA), in southern Ecuador, is the destination case study. The source market is Germany. Market access is more determined by internal collective capacities than by external conditions. These capacities can be fuelled by enhancing SC. A facilitating actor is key for such enhancement.