Recreational tourism in Mexico City: post-Covid-19 perspectives

The Covid-19 pandemic marks a milestone in the history of tourism due to the suspension of the processes of globalization and space-time compression witnessed over the last 75 years. Various scholars have grasped the opportunity offered by this temporary deglobalization to examine proposals for a more harmonious, democratic and respectful future development of tourism for the host societies and the environment. This article reflects on recreational tourism as a viable alternative for the development of tourism in cities and as a proposal to overcome the crisis caused by the pandemic. To this end, some characteristic aspects of recreational tourism developed in Mexico City's historic centre before and during the pandemic are analyzed. The analysis is guided by Darbellay and Stock's (2012) approach to the "recreational turn" of tourism in cities, and by proposals for developing creative and regenerative tourism, in which visitors have more active and participatory cultural experiences, allowing for a closer relationship between visitors and hosts.