Cultural preservation and tourism in Uchuraccay, Ayacucho, Peru: Inspirations from Chinese strategies for a development plan

Abstract

The management of cultural heritage in tourism is fundamental to ensuring the efficient use of natural, archeological, and cultural resources in a region’s tourism development. This study aims to evaluate residents’ perceptions of the relationship between cultural heritage and tourism development in Uchuraccay, Ayacucho, Peru. A questionnaire was administered to 520 residents, assessing the cultural heritage variable, which includes tangible heritage and intangible heritage, and the tourism development variable, which encompasses environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The results indicate that 38.65% of respondents believe tangible heritage faces difficulties in being properly valued due to a lack of public awareness, insufficient investment in conservation, and ineffective promotion. In addition, 40.96% of respondents perceive that intangible heritage is inadequately managed, citing the absence of effective policies and strategies to safeguard and transmit these elements to future generations. These findings highlight the need for a comprehensive assessment of cultural heritage to boost economic development through the implementation of tourism strategies that stimulate economic activity. This study provides valuable information on urban planning, governance frameworks, and empirical knowledge, contributing to informed decision-making by local authorities and the effective management of available resources.

Keywords

Local governments / Tangible heritage / Economy / Decision-making / Uchuraccay

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Huanta, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Chota, Universidad Cesar Vallejo, and Universidad Nacional de Cañete for their support during the research.

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Marco Añaños-Bedriñana Formal analysis: Wilson Marin Investigation: Rosario Pariona-Luque Methodology:Jorge Franco-Medina Writing – original draft: Liz Pacheco-Pumaleque Writing – review & editing: Alex Pacheco

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All methods applied in this research were carried out in accordance with the relevant ethical guidelines and regulations. Although no experimental procedures were performed and no human tissue samples were used, the study involved the participation of individuals through the application of an anonymous questionnaire. For this reason, ethical approval was sought to ensure compliance with fundamental principles such as participant confidentiality, informed consent and the overall ethical conduct of the study. The research has the ethical approval of the institutional review board of the Centre for Intellectual Research and Development (CIDI), number CE-PI-N°003-2025. All participants gave written consent to participate in this research.

Consent for publication

All participants gave written consent for the publication of this article.

Availability of data

Data will be available upon request to the corresponding author.

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