Horse riding as a tourist attraction to promote agrotourism in the municipality of Calixto García

Abstract

Agrotourism is a specialized segment of rural tourism, whose purpose is to satisfy certain environmentally compromised market segments, with an interest focused on knowledge of rural culture and promotes new forms of coexistence in regional contexts. Its essence can be seen in the set of activities organized by farmers as a complement to their main activity. In this sense, horse riding is one of the activities that complement this type of tourism, which has had great growth and projection in different countries of the world. The Calixto García municipality is an exponent of this sport as a traditional culture, but its development has been limited from this perspective. The present work aims to diagnose the practice of horse riding as a tourist attraction to promote agrotourism in the municipality of reference. For this, the methodological guide proposed by a leading European development group in tourism advice from 2017 was used as a basis. In addition, theoretical methods such as analysis and synthesis, historical-logical; empirical such as scientific observation, interviews and specialist criteria. As a result, the foundations were laid for the theoretical-practical deepening of the subject under study. From the reflection carried out, the need to implement actions to maintain the practice of this sport as a tourist activity is demonstrated, since it represents benefits both for those who practice it and for the community in general.