How does the growing arrival of tourists affect a rather small community? There are many ways. We can let travel agencies, who quickly try to take over the growth in visits to certain destinations, monopolize the field and impose their conditions. Or we can try to manage this growth in tourism from the community itself, through its usual government mechanisms.

The case of Taquile island in Puno, Peru, is an interesting one. Since mid 70s, the number of visitors are increasingly rising, up to 50 thousands per year; barely 13% of them are peruvian. Obviously, such market has attracted many interests. The island’s community has tried to manage the subject. For instance, they’ve built their own ships and host tourists in their homes. But travel agencies try to get their share, and have negotiated with some island’s natives some agreements that benefit only a few, allowing to distribute among less. Even so, the inhabitants of Taquile insist on managing tourism, as you can read at this work made by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (on PDF format, spanish).

The case can be opposed to a close one: the Uros island. There, travel agencies have imposed their power a lot more effectively, and visits to each island are not defined by tourists themselves. It depends on the arrangements between tourism operators and natives. Since the islands are a lot closer to Puno and, hence, more visited, it has propelled a huge growth in the supply of handcrafts, which support most of the artificial island’s inhabitants living.

Anyways, and despite the fact that Taquiles island community itself has tried to manage tourism, certain inhabitants have received more than others, specially those whose homes are better located o have boats. However, the result is better than if agencies managed the whole market.

One thing, the UNDP paper has some argueable affirmations about the posibility of the increase in tourism making the inhabitants of the islands “lose their culture”, as if this one was independent of social and economic processes.