Tourism potential of the Department of La Paz, Bolivia; Potencial turístico del Departamento de La Paz, Bolivia
Resumo: The Department of La Paz (Bolivia) is a destination with potential for meeting tourism or MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions), a type of meeting tourism that provides economic, social and cultural benefits to the places that host it. This research aims to determine economic and tourist traffic trends in the period 2016-2022 and describe the perception of experts on potential features of meeting tourism in the Department of La Paz based on a quantitative and qualitative methodology. The results obtained show a decline in tourist activity followed by a recent recovery that aspires to be maintained while providing opportunities to boost the meeting tourism sector. It is concluded that there are conditions for the consideration of more diversified tourism models and investment in infrastructure for meeting tourism is presented as an opportunity for the deployment of territorial, cultural and economic capacities, innovating in the traditional development perspective based on extractivism. © 2024, Universidad del Zulia. All rights reserved.