Development of an Ontology for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas Based on a Prospective Analysis: The Case of the Santurbán’s Moor

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to contribute, based on knowledge management with ontologies, to the implementation of smart and sustainable tourism in the high mountain moor of Santurbán, located in the department of Santander in Colombia. The first part of the document presents the area, currently socially convulsed, which has beautiful landscapes and generates the water consumed by more than two million people downstream. But, at the same time, it is a container of great mineral wealth, which generates a conflict between environmental interests and extractive gold mining. The ontology presented in this paper is part of an effort to contribute to the development of sustainable tourism for the region as an alternative to mining. The prospective methodology was used, which analyzes the general problems of the area with its various actors, based on the participation of a group of experts to determine the most relevant internal and external variables for the implementation of sustainable tourism in the region. This work resulted in the characterization of the possible tourism environment from a sustainable and technological approach, the results of which were synthesized in the implementation of an ontology that can be used to guide future technological applications that allow for the care of sensitive natural resources such as those of the Santurbán´s moor.