An Assessment of the Tourism Industry in Huanchaco, Peru: Current Impacts and Future Potential for Tourism Development

Tracy McNulty

 In the summer of 2004 I spent five weeks participating in an ethnographic field school in Huanchaco, Peru, a fishing village on the northern coast. Because of my interests in applied anthropology and the anthropology of tourism, I chose to study the impacts of tourism on the people of this small village. Knowing that I had only a short time to conduct my research, I opted to focus on the perceptions of local business owners. This strategy enabled me to gain insight into what business owners think about tourism as well as the obstacles facing further development of Huanchaco as a tourist destination. Through informal, semi-structured, and focus-group interviews, I gathered a variety of opinions and suggestions as to how tourism development might help ameliorate the environmental problems facing Huanchaco, as well as how tourism might help offset the decreased income from declining fishing yields.

High Plains Applied Anthropologist No. 1, Vol. 25, Spring, 2005 pp 44 – 49

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