This study aims to analyse how a model of tourism planning from a rural community, endogenous and participatory approach can become a strategy for the appropriation and defence of the territory in the municipality of Sibaté. The methodological horizon was oriented from a qualitative approach Páramo (2013) and the method used was the ethnography of places Vergara (2013). The information was systematised and analysed using the qualitative analysis software ATLAS.ti. The findings indicate that municipal development plans can be instruments of territorial defence, to the extent that the communities, their needs and goals are integrated. It is concluded that tourism as a development model can generate significant transformations in rural territories as long as they are inclusive, concerted and participatory, in order to achieve consensus between society and nature.