Conservation of Cultural Heritage in the Magical Town of Tepoztlan, Morelos (2001-2012)

Abstract

The Ministry of Tourism initiated the magical towns program in 2001, with the goal of augmenting the tourism uniqueness of the place, thus creating a conventional imagination about what should be popular, to establish a pathway through practical guides that are reinforced by travel agents, brochures, magazines and websites. In this way, tourism imaginaries are been constructed from a set of ideas, beliefs and even prejudices about the activities and services that tourists expect to find in the destination and often do not match the actual social practices community. The typical program promoting magical towns tends to encourage the more conventional aspects of cultural heritage, neglecting local substantive aspects of these small territories.