Eco-villages as experiential learning spaces: a community tourism perspective
Abstract
From the standpoint of community tourism, eco-villages can be regarded as "living laboratories", given the specific interest they generate among visitors. Beyond the implicit categorization as either rural tourism or ecotourism, which refers to tourist activities carried out in eco-villages, the search for this type of destination focuses on experiential and learning activities that extend beyond conventional tourist services.
The present study explores the tourism offerings within these types of intentional communities. This background reveals the interest on the part of visitors and the shared intention of ecovillages as promoters, providers, and suppliers of tourism services.
Dawson (2013) posits that ecovillages have facilitated the experimental exploration and validation of community dynamics that are conducive to replication in other contexts.
This characteristic has attracted an emerging segment of tourists interested in rural areas that offer experiential learning and experimentation with alternative lifestyles.
The findings emphasize that, despite their initial lack of tourism purposes, ecovillages have established community-based tourism as a strategy for knowledge transfer and social transformation, resulting in the consolidation of a form of tourism that integrates experiential learning and sustainable practices.
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