TOURIST SCENARIOS DURING COVID-19 IN ATLIXCO AS A MAGIC TOWN

Abstract

The city of Atlixco, in Puebla, was declared a Magical Town on September 29, 2015.
However, the tourist attraction faces a contrasting reality between the tourist offer of new

products and cultural elements unknown to the visitor. Tourism and the presence of COVID-
19 not only covered up cultural heritage, but also de-commoditized it, by creating new

scenarios with products for consumption in open spaces with less risk of infection.
This article discusses the touristification of Atlixco and the scenarios that have developed
during the pandemic, through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected in the
ethnographic fieldwork carried out during 2019-2021; whose results present the urgency of
evaluating the tourist offer of the Magical Towns market, due to the problems faced by the
cultural elements practically erased from this heritage landscape, which has caused a lack of
attention that puts them at risk of partial or total destruction. Atlixco has erased its local
history, to offer a floristic setting for the sale of plants in more than 91 commercial nurseries,
visit the main square and newly created festivals.