Quel tourisme pour les confins de nature dans un monde en crise ?
social representations, local development, actors’ strategies, emerging destinations, socioecological crisis
With the coronavirus crisis, remote nature destinations like Chilean Patagonia are worried of a possible collapse of tourism. Local communities, frightened by the risks of welcoming visitors, are withdrawing and protecting themselves. Entrepreneurs hope for a rapid return to “normality” in an area relatively untouched by COVID-19 but they fear the end of the tourism boom, as flying will remain an anxiety-provoking issue in a post-pandemic situation. These destinations have to refocus their offer in order to capture a national clientele, but this seems an unprofitable challenge for isolated areas. While entrepreneurs are refining their marketing plans and government services are establishing their secure reception protocols, leaders of ecological and conservation tourism projects along with rural tourism and leisure migration stakeholders are highlighting their assets. The current crisis could put an end to mass tourism, hypermobilities, projects based on high profitability and overtourism in iconic places. In that sense, the present global socioenvironmental crisis is an opportunity to rethink our relationship with nature and seek ways to strengthen local tourism systems, conceived as places to live and based on environmentally friendly rural economies, cultural, scientific, and traditional exchanges, attractive both to national and foreign visitors.