A Spatial Approach for Framing the Development of Tourism: Bahía Solano – Colombia

Abstract The article explores the natural context and the geographical conditions for developing tourism and for designing sectorial plans. The objective is to offer basic visual rendering as a resource for appreciating the natural environs in which the tourist activity evolves and use such resource as useful input during the planning and designing exercises. The methodology relies on the application of cartographic and spatial tools as instruments for recognising the territory and the natural landscape. The results render the current condition of natural resources and the territorial reality, as a general frame for proposing sustainable strategies of tourism planning. The contribution of the analysis can be appreciated amid the scarcity of local and specific cartographic analysis, and the precarious stock of inputs that could guide the tourism and the territorial planning in lagged territories. An overwhelming conclusion of our exercise is that the awarness and valuations of natural endowments are key elements for preserving the environment and for applying an adequate planning strategy in order to reconcile the economic necessities and the preservation of natural environment.