Textile Art of Taquile: Sustainable Tourism and Indigenous Communities

Abstract

Taquile, a small island near mainland Peru, has been an example of a sustainable, community-driven tourism model. However, in recent years, due to an increasingly globalized world, the indigenous inhabitants have faced many challenges. The island is renowned for its traditional textile art, recognized as Intangible Heritage by UNESCO in 2005. Weaving and knitting are ingrained in daily life, societal structure, gender roles and tradition.
In this paper, I aim to explore how tourism in Taquile has developed and changed over the years. By opening its doors to the world in the 1970s, this previously isolated piece of land has made many adaptations and started investing in cultural tourism - ranging from welcoming foreigners into their homes, to new business ventures and key investments. Nonetheless, due to outside competition and a lack of sufficient political and legal support, tourism has been gradually shifting the benefits away from the islanders, putting them at risk of becoming passive participants.
Within the framework of Coria and Calfucura’s (2012) perspectives and Charnley’s, (2005), ecotourism guidelines, I plan to approach the concepts of sustainable tourism and ecotourism, to analyze the positive and negative impact of this economic activity, regarding Taquile’s economy, society, and culture.