Homestay providers in Uyuni Salt, Bolivia

Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats) is annually receiving more than 60.000 national and international visitors, interested in discovering its beauty.

A surprising and challenging salt desert, together with a past of mining and hunting of the local communities, makes it nowadays one of the most visited attractions of Bolivia, and since 2016, the icon of Bolivian Vice Ministry of Tourism’ country promotion. Nevertheless, this wonderful destination is still managed through a model that leaves few resources to local communities; everyday, tour groups come from Chile and other Bolivian destinations, drive through the salt packed with visitors, take funny pictures into the desert, and go back to continue their tour in Bolivia. Under this model, no benefit is left to local communities, who mainly live on the poverty line and with many economic vulnerabilities.

In order to revert this situation, and to seize the opportunity of tourism, since 2015, local families from four small villages located in Uyuni Salt (Culpina K, San Cristobal, Vila Vila and Rio Grande), has founded Pueblos Mágicos de Los Lipez (PML), a Community Based Tourism operation that offers different services such as homestay, gastronomic tours, adventure and discovering activities with local certified guides.

The vision of PML is diversify and complement the destination’s tourist offer, complementing drive through and photographic activities in the desert with community based experiences connecting the visitor with local population, increasing the duration of the stay, the visitor satisfaction and generating new jobs and income for local communities.

Since 2015, 107 CBT enterprises have been opened in the area, generating 171 new jobs and USD 341,976 income from visitors.

These developments, have positively affected local communities, that nowadays rely on tourism as an additional source of income, including women as main entrepreneurs, developing economic alternatives to mining and low valued professions.

Every year, PML is invited to plan promotional activities of the destination together with local authorities and the private sector; in addition, the association is signing agreements with local tour operators that see their activities as a good complement to the traditional tours they offer to their clients.

For more details please visit http://uyunisaltbolivia.com