Cuadernos de Turismo, 46, (2020), 649-652 MARINE TOURISM AS AN OPTION FOR SUSTAINABLE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT BASED ON FEMALE EMPOWERMENT Iria Caamaño Franco Universidade da Coruña iria.caamano@udc.es https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7983-8620 María Andrade Suárez Universidade da Coruña mandrade@udc.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5957-1751 Antonia Pérez García Universidade da Coruña antonia.perezg@udc.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4655-8830 The evolution of the socio-economic, political and environmental conditions is affec- ting the fishing activity in the European Union and, specifically in Spain and Galicia, they have generated a profound crisis situation in the sector (Molina et al., 2010; Miret-Pastor et al., 2015). For this reason,it is urgent to implement diversification strategies that stren- gthen local economies by providing them with complementary sources of income (Farnet, 2011; Moreno-Muñoz and García-Marín, 2019). In this scenario, the productive reorien- tation of fishing for tourism becomes a valuable example of revitalization and sustainable coastal development (Howard and Pinder, 2003; Molina et al., 2010; Pardellas et al., 2011; Ling and Chiao , 2017; Herrera-Racionero et al, 2018; Moreno, 2018a) in which the active participation of seafaring women have been at the forefront (Martínez García, 2017). Thanks to the outsourcing of the fishing sector, it has been possible to conserve ele- ments of the maritime cultural heritagethat, otherwise, would have disappeared (Howard and Pinder, 2003; Doyon, 2015; Gràcia, 2016; Jiménez and García, 2018). Through the process of ‘heritagisation’, the marine culture, the fishing facilities and the local gas- tronomy based on seafood products, these have managed to become not only heritage resources per se but also economic resources that promote development (Ling and Chiao, 2017 ; Rogelja and Janko, 2017: Jiménez and García, 2018). Although it cannot be seen as the definitive solution to the structural difficulties faced by fishing but, in certain territories, it is helping to improve the living conditions of these coastal populations and contributes to promoting better management and understanding of the resources(Farnet, 2011; Claesson, 2011; Khakzad and Griffith, 2016; Ling and Chiao, 2017). Undoubtedly heritage, culture and tourism are, today, totally interrelated (Jiménez and García, 2018). Cuadernos de Turismo, nº 46, (2020); pp. 649-652 Universidad de Murcia eISSN: 1989-4635 EXTENDED ABSTRACT