Economic impact of cultural tourism in rural areas of Mexico. A case study

Tourism is one of the principal boosters in economic development in some countries and Mexico is no exception. in rural places in a development strategy in the face of agricultural crisis. This research analyzed the economic impact of tourism from the perspective of the merchant and the tourism service providers in rural communities. It was a case study and defined 54 people to be interviewed through non-probablity snowball sampling near touristic places. It was found that most of the interviewed people were young adults. Businesses are small familiar companies that mostly commercialize handcraft and food. more than 60% of business pay rent to work. Very few jobs were generated and most of them were occupied by people within the community. By not having their business registered, little fiscal income was collected and almost half paid a fee to a commerciant organization to be able to work. It is concluded that economic activities provide a good income to the interviewed compared to other laboral options.