Tourism Governance and Sustainable Local Development in the Magic Town of Mascots, Jalisco

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Tourism governance; Sustainable local development; Magic Towns; Citizen participation; Collaborative governance; Heritage tourism

Abstract

Tourism governance has become a strategic mechanism for promoting sustainable local development, particularly in heritage destinations where economic growth must be balanced with cultural preservation, social inclusion, and community participation. This study analyzes the relationship between tourism governance and sustainable local development in the Magic Town of Mascots, Jalisco, Mexico. A qualitative case study design was adopted using a descriptive and interpretive approach. Data were collected between December 2025 and February 2026 through semi-structured interviews with 17 key stakeholders—including public officials, tourism entrepreneurs, local business owners, community representatives, and residents—and complemented by participant observation. The information was analyzed using ATLAS.ti 26 through open and axial coding, semantic network analysis, and methodological triangulation. The findings reveal that tourism governance constitutes the principal mechanism for strengthening institutional coordination, citizen participation, and collaboration among public, private, and community stakeholders. Participants identified transparency, communication, and institutional trust as essential conditions for improving tourism planning and fostering sustainable local development. Although the Magic Town designation has enhanced tourism opportunities, the results indicate that long-term sustainability depends less on the designation itself than on the capacity of local actors to establish collaborative governance structures capable of ensuring equitable participation and a balanced distribution of tourism benefits. This study contributes empirical evidence to the literature on tourism governance by demonstrating how collaborative governance supports sustainable local development in heritage destinations and offers practical recommendations for strengthening governance mechanisms in Mexico’s Magic Towns Program.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this license to share adapted material derived from this chapter or parts of it.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Carlos Salvador Peña Casillas
AU  - Rodrigo Espinoza Sánchez
AU  - José Alejandro López Sánchez
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
TI  - Tourism Governance and Sustainable Local Development in the Magic Town of Mascots, Jalisco
BT  - Proceedings of the International Congress on Competitiveness and Development of MSMEs 2026 (ICCD-MSMEs 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 350
EP  - 371
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-779-8_21
ID  - Casillas2026
ER  -