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Association, self-organization and agency: The work of informal vendors in four tourist beaches on the ecuadorian coast

Abstract:

Street vendors are one of the main characteristics of beach tourism in Ecuador, however, they have been consistently ignored in tourism policy efforts and coastal management plans. Through the qualitative analysis of eight semi-structured interviews, we explore the social structural conditions that enable and constrain the daily work and practices of informal vendors in four beaches of the Ecuadorian coast. The analysis revealed the troubled relationship between the government and the vendors, and how this interplay leads to uncertainty when vendors do not know what are the policies that apply to them for the use of the beach as a public space. Association and self-organisation processes then emerge as a response to deal with the uncertainty and instability of their working conditions. This research contributes to the understanding of the working conditions of informal vendors in the context of beach tourism management and provides policy guidelines for the improvement of their current situation.