Formal governance for the coordination of Amazonian tourism microclusters
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Abstract
Tourism production networks require conditions of territorial coordination and formal governance that enable the transformation of scattered interactions into sustained processes of coordination among stakeholders. The purpose of the research was to analyze the coordination among actors in the tourism system of the cantonal microclusters of Mera, Pastaza, Santa Clara, and Arajuno, as well as the barriers and challenges of formal governance that affect the strengthening of tourism production chains in Pastaza, Ecuador. A predominantly quantitative, exploratory-descriptive, non-experimental, and cross-sectional study was conducted, supplemented with qualitative information for interpretive triangulation. Data was collected between November 2025 and February 2026 using a 20-item structured survey, validated by project specialists, administered to 80 tourism stakeholders. The data was processed using descriptive statistics and thematic categorization. An active, though predominantly informal, coordination was identified, based on the use of digital channels, operational interactions, and a favorable disposition toward coordination. The main barriers were lack of time, limited access to information, bureaucracy, and territorial dispersion. Nature conservation and community-based tourism were priorities for the destination, while cultural heritage emerged as an opportunity for diversification. The main constraint was not a lack of contacts, but rather the limited effectiveness of formal governance in establishing forums for inter-county coordination and strengthening future tourism value chains.
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