Cultural Heritage, Legal Protection and Tourism in the Teotihuacan Valley

Abstract

The Teotihuacan Valley is home to one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, in addition to constituting a cultural landscape. The scientific exploration of its most prominent monuments and the opening of the archaeological zone has generated an extraordinary niche for cultural tourism in Central México, whose growth trend has increased as new tourist offerings and equipment are integrated. However, the lack of dialogue between the various social actors involved in these activities, and the lack of comprehensive plans that generate respectful, inclusive, and sustainable tourism, could jeopardize the main attractions, by generating non-concerted and even contrary actions to the rules for the protection of cultural heritage. This work reviews the state of the relationship between cultural heritage, regulatory framework, and tourism, studying a paradigmatic case for Mexico and Latin America, through a qualitative methodology that allows us to identify and describe the conditions in which heritage resources have been activated over time, as well as tourism management strategies implemented by various agencies of the three levels of government and their implications in the social context, to establish a proposal for heritage tourism management from an integral perspective.