The Starlight Foundation will take Astrotourism to the 9th Ibero-American Rural Tourism Meeting in Colombia.
The organization's director was invited during FITUR 2024 by the Astrotourism Working Group of the IBEROATUR network, which includes more than twenty countries.
2024 / 03 / 21
Starlight Foundation brings Astrotourism to the 9th Ibero-American Rural Tourism Meeting in Colombia
The Starlight Foundation defines astrotourism as a sustainable and responsible form of tourism that combines observation of the night and day sky, education, and leisure activities related to astronomy. Astronomy tourism has a positive impact on the environment, empowers local communities, and is a resource to promote areas with fewer opportunities that find in star tourism an excellent opportunity to increase the number of quality visitors.
In this way, the starry sky is an opportunity for development in rural areas that are prone to dramatic depopulation, since it is precisely these areas that have better skies.
For this reason, during the last edition of the Ibero-American Rural Tourism Meeting of the IBEROATUR network, held in El Salvador, an Astrotourism Working Group was created, led by the specialized channel Turismodeestrellas.com and with members from twenty countries.
In line with this initiative, one of the main axes of the next Rural Tourism Meeting of the IBEROATUR Network will be astrotourism. And as the main promoter of this type of sustainable tourism, the director of the Starlight Foundation, Antonia Varela, has been invited during Fitur 2024 to participate as a speaker in this event, which will take place from November 5 to 10 in Colombia, specifically in the department of Huila, in the province of Neiva.
This edition is organized by the Corporation of Tourism Entrepreneurs of Huila - CETHUR with a number of institutional allies are the Vice Ministry of Tourism, the Secretary of Tourism and Economic Development of Huila, COTELCO, FUNDACOV, the Latin American Association of Rural Tourism and academia.
This country, through the Foundation for the Support of Vulnerable Communities, FUNDACOV, will organize the IX Rural Tourism Meeting in Huila, province of Neiva.
It is worth mentioning that the Department of Huila is home to the Starlight Tourist Destination of the Tatacoa Desert. This area wants to strengthen its strategy towards star tourism, especially during this international event in which astrotourism will be the protagonist.
The inaugural event, according to those responsible, will take place in the city of Neiva. On that day, the first academic block will be "Starry skies, opportunities for rural areas", where international experts will share experiences and strategies for implementing star tourism projects, highlighting their impact on the local economy and the conservation of the natural environment. This will be followed by a technical visit to the Tatacoa Desert.
IBEROATURE
The Ibero-American Institute of Rural Tourism IBEROATUR was created in 2018 by five entities from Panama, Portugal, Spain and Costa Rica, and is currently composed of twenty-two countries.
The main objective of the Institute is to consolidate a permanent forum for cooperation, exchange of experiences, promotion, dissemination and strengthening of Ibero-American rural tourism as an engine for sustainable development of inland villages, peasant areas, indigenous peoples and rural territories of Ibero-America.
