Decolonizing tourism research: a critical ethnographic contribution from the global South

This article examines tourism development in Bolívar Parish, a historically marginalized rural territory in Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador, to investigate how tourism operates as a vehicle of capitalist penetration in the Global South. Drawing on a critical ethnographic approach, the study combines world-systems theory, the enclave tourism model, and the concept of coloniality of power to analyze how global capitalism reshapes local economies, land relations, and social hierarchies in post-hacienda contexts. Methodologically, it contributes to tourism studies by adopting a reflexive and situated ethnography that foregrounds the researcher’s positionality and the co-production of knowledge with local actors, challenging extractive and neutral research paradigms. Empirical findings reveal that tourism in Bolívar—driven by lifestyle migrants and transnational capital—reproduces structural inequalities through land speculation, racialized labor divisions, and state-supported enclave models. At the same time, local residents display forms of agency by navigating and contesting these dynamics through informal and community-based tourism practices. The study advances a critical knowledge of tourism as a mechanism of both subordination and resistance within global capitalist systems, offering insights for rethinking tourism development through social justice, territorial sustainability, and epistemic plurality.