Community-based tourism offers a different way to travel: to discover a territory hand in hand with the people who inhabit it, to approach their customs and share experiences designed and managed by the communities themselves. In Argentina, this model is led by indigenous peoples and peasant communities and seeks to generate, in addition to cultural exchange, opportunities for local development, rootedness, and the enhancement of identity.
To learn more about this form of travel, Para Ti spoke with Evelyn Cantero, a university technician in tourism and facilitator of community-based tourism projects and social impact. In this interview she explains what sets this model apart from traditional tourism, the role communities play in organizing experiences, and what attitude a traveler should have when approaching a territory unfamiliar to them.
“Community-based tourism has already proven to be a real option for inclusion”
-What exactly is community-based tourism and how does it differ from a traditional tourism proposal?
-Community-based tourism is a way of traveling that proposes to know the territories through immersive experiences designed and managed with their own communities. A tourism model that, besides being a transformative experience for the traveler, presents itself as a local development and inclusion alternative for those who are visited. Weaving networks among cooperatives, local guides, women cooks, and host families who open their doors to welcome visitors from all over.
Traditional and mass tourism, as it is known in much of Argentina, is not exempt from an extractive gaze: it saturates ecosystems, wears down soils, and displaces communities. However, it is not about stopping travel, but about traveling differently. Community-based tourism has already proven to be a real option for inclusion and local development where the community is the main protagonist and beneficiary of inhabiting its own territory, participating actively in the design and development of immersive tourism experiences.
Direct work with local people is one of the most effective tools for the fair distribution of tourism income, ensuring that the activity benefits resident families directly and immediately, countering the capital flight that characterizes mass tourism. By contrast, with this type of experiences the benefit is direct and can be reinvested in education, health, or infrastructure.
Beyond economic impacts, there are social and cultural consequences that go even deeper: it prevents women and young people from rural regions from migrating to large cities due to lack of jobs or from selling their lands for mining exploitation, real estate ventures, or massive deforestation, enabling them to thrive while preserving their identity, customs, and ways of life; revaluing local culture, and fostering rootedness and narrative sovereignty.
“Local communities are the main protagonists of the visited territory”
-What role do Indigenous peoples and peasant communities play in organizing these experiences?
-Local communities are key actors in the design and development of these experiences, as the host families themselves decide what to share, how to tell it, and what boundaries to set to protect their privacy and sacred places or rites.
When a local community, Indigenous or creole, notices that tourists value their ancestral knowledge, language, dances, and regional gastronomy, culture and identity are greatly strengthened. Local communities are the main protagonists of the visited territory.
“This type of tourism creates a virtuous circle of conservation”
-What is this tourism model aiming to generate in the communities and the territories where it operates?
-Fundamentally, it seeks economic sovereignty and the valorization of cultural identity. In many rural and mountainous territories, community tourism becomes a vital tool to prevent dislocation, offering young people and women an opportunity for professional and personal development without having to migrate to cities.
Additionally, it generates a virtuous circle of conservation: by valuing ancestral knowledge, traditional gastronomy, and the natural surroundings, the community itself is empowered to protect and defend its patrimony against extractive or mass-market models.
“Being a conscious guest who values the privilege of being welcomed on someone else’s territory”
-What should a traveler bear in mind to approach a community in a respectful and responsible way?
-Those who participate in these experiences understand travel as a genuine opportunity for cultural exchange to broaden their worldview, so traveling with a stance of listening and learning is fundamental.
There is a common misconception that undertaking these kinds of trips will be uncomfortable or precarious; host families in rural areas are exceedingly kind and generous, turning each service into a personalized and meticulously cared-for experience. Yet the true wealth lies in the authenticity of the encounter with others. It is about being a conscious guest who values the privilege of being welcomed on someone else’s territory.
Evelyn Cantero is a university technician in tourism and hospitality. Facilitator of community-based tourism and social impact projects. Founder and Director of Kusi Turismo.
