Acceso usuarios
Luis Alberto Valencia Chavez
Pese a que el turismo resulta ser un fenómeno de importancia a nivel mundial, gran parte de las investigaciones que se han realizado sobre percepciones y actitudes locales hacia éste y sus impactos, han sido sin fundamento teórico y, las que han hecho uso de alguna teoría, se han quedado únicamente a nivel conceptual, sin llegar a contribuir de forma significativa a su comprensión e interpretación. Particularmente en este tipo de estudios, la Teoría de las Representaciones Sociales (TRS) ha demostrado ser de utilidad en la compresión del porqué esas percepciones y actitudes hacia el turismo; sin embargo, se considera que se ha prestado poco interés en saber cómo ha sido aplicada y, a partir de ello, identificar sus limitaciones en el estudio del turismo. En este sentido, el objetivo de esta investigación es dar respuesta a ambas interrogantes; para ello, fueron considerados artículos publicados, tanto en español como en inglés, que utilizaron la TRS. Todas las publicaciones fueron revisadas y analizadas para dar cuenta de los usos y limitaciones de la Teoría. Entre los hallazgos principales, se identificó que la TRS ha sido aplicada principalmente como un soporte conceptual en los estudios relativos a las percepciones y actitudes de residentes hacia el turismo y sus impactos. Sin embargo, en recientes investigaciones, un salto de lo conceptual a lo compresivo (hermenéutico) ha sido observado en el uso de esta teoría.
Despite the fact that tourism is a globally important phenomenon, much of the research carried out on local perceptions and attitudes towards tourism and its impacts has been without theoretical foundation, and those that have made use of some theory have remained at a conceptual level only, without contributing significantly to its understanding and interpretation. Particularly in this type of study, Social Representation Theory (SRT) has proven to be useful in understanding both perceptions and attitudes towards tourism; However, it is considered that there has been little interest in knowing how it has been applied and, from this, to identify its limitations in the study of tourism. In this sense, the objective of this research is to answer both questions; to this end, articles published in both Spanish and English that used the SRT were considered. All the publications were reviewed and analyzed to account for the uses and limitations of the Theory. In this sense, the objective of this research is to answer both questions; to this end, articles published in both Spanish and English that used the SRT were considered. All the publications were reviewed and analyzed in order to achieve the objective. Among the main findings, it was identified that TRS has been applied mainly as a conceptual support in studies on local perceptions and attitudes towards tourism and its impacts. However, in recent research, a leap from the conceptual to the comprehensive (hermeneutic) in the use of this theory was observed.
