Cultural Heritage and emergent tourism. Villa Guillermina from worker villages to a new tourist destination. A case study

Abstract

In recent years the province of Santa Fe, has promoted a policy for the creation of new tourist destinations, with the purpose of contributing to local economic development. Villa Guillermina, located at the santafesina Cuña Boscosa, in the north of the province, integrates the circuit “Camino del Tanino- Pueblos Forestales” (Tanino Road - Forest Villages). The construction of the tourist destination is based on the appropriation of the historical cultural heritage of the forest villages, which emerged in the early twentieth century due to industrial forest activity. In this article, I expose an analysis of tourist exploitation in peripheral areas, characterized by a rural context and no tourist precedents. I examine how heritage's activation with tourist purposes at a local level is produced, and propose the State role on the tourist activity as a development factor.