Tourism governance and regional development in the South Coast of Jalisco, Mexico

Tourism is one of the most important activities for the international economy, with the highest growth and impact in the world. Notwithstanding, its capacity to contribute to regional development and achieve equitable distribution of benefits has been limited. This research analyses the characteristics of current tourism activity, and governance processes that influence tourism management in the South Coast region of the state of Jalisco, Mexico, where the main offer is 3S-tourism. The resource exploitation in the area has generated natural disasters, loss of identity, territorial privatisation, and social conflicts among other problems. Governance processes were studied using the Governance Analytical Framework (GAF) as a tool to systematise the social, political, and institutional complexity of the formulation,and implementation of collective decision processes. It was found that there are governmental strategies related to the governance of tourism, however, they have not contributed to development in an articulated manner. At the local level, the Stakeholders have been able to adopt governance processes for tourism management. However, governance processes based on government strategies have made inclusive tourism management difficult.