THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE MARISCAL DE QUITO

 

THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE MARISCAL DE QUITO

The pandemic has had a special effect on tourism in Ecuador and Latin America, but the main problem that now follows is the economic crisis, insecurity and natural disasters, which are hitting the region as brutally as the pandemic. .

 This has meant that people were locked up first for 40 days, in some cases on several occasions and that they kept a prolonged social distancing for almost two years, in turn air traffic interprovincial traffic Interstate, interregional, international and intercontinental, was first null and then almost null.

Thus originated a crisis in tourism, which is not only recreational tourism, but also sports tourism, such as mountaineering, smart tourism, which is tourism in which people travel to study a language, make a course, a training, a postgraduate or master's degree, a diploma, a workshop, a short course, a seminar, a meeting. assembly, etc., festive tourism of local or national festivals, cultural tourism, historical tourism, such as Colonial Quito, ecotourism or community tourism, or coexistence with cultures, nationalities or different ethnic groups, or solidarity tourism, in which They travel to provide aid, protect species, campaign, and now, in temporary jobs with visas such as Works and Holliday visas.

The new tourism in the pandemic is health tourism, as many people travel to get vaccinations, get physical and psychological treatments, and digital nomads come, who work from any country, or while traveling.

 There is also tourism to healing places, such as hot springs, the beach and the sea, to places where traditional medicine is practiced, especially for psychological disorders that are about to take off.

 Tourism in Ecuador became the largest private investment since the large hotel chains, or airlines, in the world, bus companies, and others have invested capital, created routes, and at the same time created jobs, and also protected the environment. , nature, ancestral cultures, species, pre-Columbian or colonial architecture, since they are its main attraction in Latin America, as casinos are in Las Vegas.

Undoubtedly after the pandemic, people who travel have many options and possibilities to learn, know, have fun, understand, be supportive or share, than people at home or at work.

But the economic crisis has made cities and towns unsafe. or places, either because they have communicable diseases, or because their inhabitants need to steal, cheat, cheat, lie, betray the trust of tourists and visitors, or because they receive migratory waves of desperate and hungry people, who flee their countries and invade Ecuador .

Many local people, hungry for land, food, or greed, are the ones who most destroy the landscape, forests, species, harmony and social peace, making tourist attractions a danger, a risk.

But there are places that are hit by development. One of those places for example is Colonial Quito, where the population abandoned their homes, because the houses did not have garages and the cars became part of the family, in many cases more esteemed than the children. The people who lived in the center of the city were wealthy families, but when the age of iron came, cement. electricity and asphalt, telephony, radio, television, household appliances, the world changed and colonial houses, which were made of adobe, damp, with narrow streets, congested by traffic, stinky from gas from vehicles, the walls were stained with soot. The Historic Center became a city of small merchants, who used a good part of the house as warehouses and a den for the poor, beggars, or criminals.

Since 2000, the municipality and governments try to make an urban regeneration, there are hotels, restaurants, pedestrianization, lighting. But the proximity to slums such as El Tejar, San Roque or La Libertad, which now, with the pandemic are the main refuge of the poor, make the street of La Roda and the illuminated churches, which are the most beautiful at night in Quito, are places where you have to move carefully.

La Mariscal was the neighborhood that attracted the rich since the crazy 20s of the last century. The rich left their palaces in the colonial center, for houses with exterior gardens. garages, electricity, drinking water, paved streets, buildings, parks, universities, museums, public offices, banks, embassies, shops in this neighborhood.