As a teacher, I believe tourism has generally been good for my students. The income it generates has helped improve local education, and contact with visitors has widened young people’s curiosity about the world.
Our students will inevitably encounter cultures and ideas from outside Otavalo. Tourism gives them some preparation for that wider world, and I see this as an opportunity rather than a threat.
The town has improved too. Rubbish is collected more reliably, and houses and roads are better. Tourism income has contributed to these changes.
Contact with visitors can expand a young person’s imagination, but curiosity becomes meaningful only when education helps them understand what they encounter.
There are also more places for young people to spend their free time, including discos and other forms of entertainment that did not exist before. These facilities make the town feel less limited.
Yet young people are almost never consulted when important decisions are made. Adults decide how the environment will change, which facilities will be built and what kind of tourism Otavalo should encourage.
This is their future. They will live longest with the consequences of decisions being taken today, but they have the least influence over them.
We say we are developing Otavalo for the next generation, while rarely asking that generation what kind of place it wants to inherit.
I would like schools and local government to create genuine opportunities for students to discuss tourism, culture, waste, public spaces and employment. Listening should not be symbolic; their ideas should influence decisions.
Better buildings and classrooms matter. So do the confidence and civic skills that allow young people to participate in shaping their community.
Education gives students more than knowledge about the world; it should also teach them that their opinions matter in deciding Otavalo’s future.