Responses, resistance, and opportunities for community-based tourism in the Yucatan peninsula in the face of Covid-19 and recurring crises

The COVID-19 public health issue came to be just another one - albeit not just any other - among the crises of different nature and magnitude that often affect the tourism sector in the Yucatan Peninsula A number of environmental, economic, political, socio-territorial, commercial, and sanitary vulnerabilities affect the tourism sector in general and the community-based sector in particular Faced with multiple recurring crises, tourism cooperatives have adopted various strategies to survive during adverse periods Pluriactivity - a historical cultural response of campesino (peasant) households to eventualities in their productive practices - stands out among such strategies However, due to the long sector stagnation caused by the health emergency lockdown, community-based tourism businesses have seen their income reduced in more than 50% compared to 2019 and are formulating new responses, as well as resistance mechanisms, to address the dilemma between missing two high-tourism seasons, on the one hand, and avoiding the health risks of their communities and visitors, on the other Major response strategies adopted by community-based tourism businesses include returning to food self-supply and supportive exchange of products among social businesses, as well as to savings and economic provisions Resistance mechanisms include shutting down towns and conflicts within and between communities stemming from the reopening of tourism activity Based on our practical experience acquired through accompanying 24 community-based tourism businesses to face the ongoing public-health crisis - and given the still incipient studies that adopt critical approaches within the community-based tourism practice itself-, the final section of this article presents a theoretical reflection to envision the likely post-pandemic reconfiguration that a “deep community-based tourism” could go through to differentiate it from the multiple attempts to co-opt and alienate this activity, in the light of force-ideas such as proximity and everyday tourism © 2021 Instituto de Geografia All rights reserved