INTERPRETATION AS A MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR BIRDWATCHING TOURISM SITES: THE CASE OF THE ARENA BLANCA RESERVE, ALTO MAYO, PERÚ

Bird watching is a tourist activity that has been growing steadily in recent years. Its specialization requires the implementation of various activities to achieve a high value-added offer. Peru is a country with enormous potential for birdwatching tourism, specifically the San Martín region is one of the privileged places. It is part of the northern bird circuit of Peru with a great diversity of birds from the most common to the endemic, where this type of specialized tourism can be developed. The present investigation is carried out in the Arena Blanca Ecological Reserve, a site specialized in providing bird-watching services located in Alto Mayo, San Martín, Peru. The objec tive is to analyze the implementation of continuous heritage interpretation processes that facilitate bird-watching, as well as the management of the tourist site. This research has a mixed methodological basis. The qualitative approach will allow detection of the implementation process of the inter pretation as a management tool for the tourist site for observing wild birds. Likewise, the approach will allow collecting data to evaluate the effective ness and satisfaction of the operators, tourists, guides, and/or visitors in the visiting area. The analysis is intended to demonstrate that the processes of interpretation of the heritage allow for facilitating the observation of wild species and how it contributes to the management of the tourist site.