International Touristic Archeology in Mexico: the making of a relationship (1968-1978)

Abstract

This paper focused on the analysis of archaeological tourism in Mexico between 1968 and 1978. This decade represented a cultural, political and social cultural revolution that strengthen the relationship between archeology and tourism. It is highlighted that this time-lapse is one of the most important periods for the development of tourism, in which state related-educational tourism is mixed within sun, sea and sand tourism in the emergence of international or global tourism for archeology. It is discussed it was the result of an agenda that mixed diverse scoops and interests in the national agenda, having as a result a challenging and complicated interaction around the archaeological heritage, not always having positive results, but also bringing about significant frictions and social stress. To discuss the issues raised above, this paper is divided into three parts. In the first I present the context of tourism at the dawn of the second decade of the 20th century. In the second part, I provide data and figures of archaeological tourism, a section that becomes the backbone of this paper. In the third part, it is presented the conclusions that contribute to the discussion of the relationship between archeology and tourism. I conclude by arguing that in this decade (1968-1978) an exceptional, but not easy, relationship between tourism and archeology was making of, creating since then the most visible face of Mexican archeology for the global world of tourism.