Gastronomic Segment Identity and Circular Economy in the Tourist Region of Puerto Vallarta and Bahía De Banderas, Mexico

Tourism is in the basis for the strategical development in Mexico and a state policy since the 1970s. The success of the results of tourism activity depends on a number of factors that are distributed among the roles of agents in the public, private and societal civil sectors. The actions at the local level also depend on the concrete capability of interference of these actors. The purpose of the paper is to identify the insertion of the gastronomy as a cluster that foster the circular economy of the touristic region of Puerto Vallarta and Bahia de Banderas. The research has had two moments of data collection, from 2013 to 2018, and in 2022 observing specifically the pandemic period. The gastronomy sector was characterized as well as the themes of the tourism agenda of the region of study. We focused on the observation of a cluster being formed having not just local production of ingredients, but also tour routes of local street food, as well as raicilla tours. Despite these local products, as preliminary conclusion, we observe that the formation of an identity among the agents of the segment is dispersed among the markets they serve, considering the type of food they offer and the profile of the public.