Tourism and Peasant Pluriactivity in the Western Area of Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Abstract

The advance of agribusiness has reconfigured the relations of production and power in the countryside, threatening the traditional reproduction strategies of peasant families. Meanwhile, within the framework of a service economy, tourism is presented as an economic alternative for the rural world. The departments of Pocho and Minas are located in the west of Córdoba Province. With a history linked to forest extraction and mining, they exhibit a high degree of social heterogeneity and productive diversity, with goat production playing a key role. In 2018, the Traslasierra National Park was created, which, together with the asphalting of part of the Provincial Route 28 up to Los Túneles, reconfigures the local economic landscape with a potential for tourism development, threatened by forest fires. Our objective is to analyse the strategies of farming families seeking to adapt to tourism, based on the concept of pluriactivity. The tools of the ethnographic method are used in semi-structured interviews, supported by photographic recording and the development of cartography. It is concluded that successful development lies in balancing the need to improve the economic conditions of the population with the exercise of their identity and the preservation of the environment.