Conducted a comprehensive regional-scale geotourism assessment of the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca — inventorying assets and examining the ecological, economic, and social issues affecting them, with participation from indigenous communities across roughly nine lakeside municipalities. The assessment fed directly into the formulation of a World Bank tourism project.
A geotourism assessment asks a broader question than a conventional tourism study: not just what can be sold, but what gives a place its character, and whether tourism will sustain or erode it.
The work inventoried the geotourism assets and resources of the Bolivian shore and its islands, and identified opportunities and challenges for community-led cultural tourism and related enterprise initiatives. Indigenous communities across approximately nine municipalities along the lake participated in the assessment process.
The findings contributed directly to the formulation of the World Bank's Lake Titicaca Local Sustainable Development Project. Juan returned later that year as a member of the Bank's appraisal and negotiation missions, where he analyzed the proposed tourism investments and their costs, adjusted the scope of the tourism components for the first year of execution, revised terms of reference for procurement including the cultural heritage protection component, and provided technical assistance to the project implementation unit on applying the National Geographic geotourism methodology to subsequent surveys.