Facultad de Ciencias de la Hospitalidad

This research project proposes the formulation of profiles composed of foreign and national tourists in a world heritage city as a contribution to the strategies of the Association of Accommodation Establishments in the city of Cuenca. A total of 1,293 surveys, gathered during holidays between 2015 and 2016, underwent a statistical analysis of decision trees and statistical regression using seven variables. In addition, by means of CART and Random Forest technical comparisons, the models and predictive variables were prioritized for marketing strategies and planning. Two tourist profiles were described, the backpacker type and the cultural type, with an error of 1%, where the variables of visitor age, daily average accommodation expense, and type of employment at the origin predicted the accommodation selection upon arrival at the tourist destination in a better way.

El presente trabajo analiza las percepciones ciudadanas (comunes) en torno al patrimonio cultural edificado. El valor que otorga el habitante de un territorio a la patrimonialidad no es estático, sino cambiante en dependencia de múltiples factores. La exploración de variables en torno a la percepción es una tarea clave para fomentar la amplitud de métodos que pueden combinarse para la gestión del patrimonio cultural. En 1999, el Centro Histórico de Cuenca ha sido declarado por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad, sin embargo, existe una excesiva preocupación por el objeto en desmedro del sujeto. El objetivo de la investigación es explorar las percepciones de los ciudadanos en torno al patrimonio construido. El enfoque del estudio fue mixto, cualitativo a partir un grupo focal usado para la construcción de variables y también para el contraste discursivo con los elementos cuantitativos. La parte cualitativa se basó en la exploración de variables categóricas jerarquizadas y agrupadas. La percepción del patrimonio cultural tiene una alta relación con los aspectos históricos, se asocia mayoritariamente con las edificaciones monumentales y antiguas, y, existe ambigüedad en la pertenencia. El discurso oficial de conservación entre conocedores genera más problemas de conservación que el ciudadano común.

The debate about migration and human mobility has been generalized in almost all spheres throughout history, even they were not completely aware and willing to leave their countries or receive foreigners as well. However, during the last years the Venezuelan crisis has forced their
peoples to leave the country and look for new places to live. Several countries have hosted millions of those immigrants; countries the world. Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced this phenomenon throughout their such as Colombia., Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Unfortunately, several xenophobic breakouts have been witnessed already. Ecuador receives thousands of Venezuelan immigrants that have settled in some of its cities. Our country is considered as a transit country as well, being part of the route to southern destinies.
The presence of this increased amount of people has affected different fields, and tourism and accommodation is one of these. It is sad to mention that several companies have decided to hire immigrants, some of them do not even have a legal status which promotes unequal and unfair treatment. Some of them pay less than the minimum wage, others have also physically abused their workers, among others. There are several consequences in terms of xenophobia however the
affections to the image and reputation of the touristic destiny are still unknown. One of the aims of this research is to identify the perception that touristic business owners that operate in Quito have towards Venezuelan immigrants; as well as the opinions of people whose area of incidence is La Mariscal (Touristic Special Area) of what they think about the image of this place. We used a descriptive and quantitative focus which was based on surveys that were applied to the owners of business that are part of the registry of the Ministry of Tourism that are located in the study area. The citizens that were present were asked as well. The results were analyzed using R studio software. We could conclude that in Europe there are xenophobic breakouts that respond to race and work inequalities while in Quito owners see immigration as an opportunity to lower costs and therefore make more money. The hiring of Venezuelan immigrants is also detrimental to the image of the touristic destiny since people have xenophobic attitudes towards this population.

RESUMEN: Este artículo presenta un estudio llevado a cabo entre ejecutivos de los sectores empresariales de Hotelería, Gastronomía y Turismo de las tres principales ciudades del Ecuador, para determinar sus percepciones sobre la educación superior en estas carreras. A través de varias entrevistas grupales, el estudio investigó lo que los ejecutivos y gerentes en Cuenca, Guayaquil y Quito pensaban sobre el valor de un título académico, la importancia y el formato de las prácticas estudiantiles, los contenidos de los programas de estudio, la relación entre las empresas y la academia, y el perfil de un graduado ideal. A pesar de haber diferencias de opinión, los ejecutivos identificaron una fuerte orientación al servicio, experiencia laboral, sólidas habilidades técnicas y un excelente manejo del idioma inglés, como componentes esenciales en el perfil de un graduado. Los participantes fueron francos sobre el valor de un título universitario y sobre el contenido de los programas académicos; identificaron deficiencias en las ofertas académicas actuales y ofrecieron valiosas sugerencias. ABSTRACT: This article reports on a study that was conducted among hotel management, gastronomy and tourism industry managers and executives of the three main cities of Ecuador to determine their perceptions about hospitality and tourism higher education. By means of several group interviews the study investigated what executives and managers in Cuenca, Guayaquil and Quito thought