Diagnóstico do turismo ecológico e o papel das parcerias para o desenvolvimento socioeconomico regional e para a sustentabilidade em Goiás

Abstract

The diagnosis of ‘ecological tourism’ is an attempt to outline a more complete prospect of this activity in Goias state. Despite the term ‘ecological tourism’ is used, the author seeks to situate the tourism activities within the domain of ‘nature tourism’, and classifies such activities as being ‘ecocentric’ and ‘anthropocentric’. The investigation aims at identifying the existing types of tourism, the characteristics, the stakeholders, the attractions of each destination, and the main impacts caused by visitors, the sustainable practices, the protected environmental areas as well as the inter-relations among the participating actors, the ‘nodes’ of difficulties and complexities related to a nature-based tourism. The research also focuses on the geopolitical factors that frame and influence the development of a regional tourism. It is about mapping a regional context which can be used by an array of organizations, institutions, companies and the government. The results of this investigation can be used for planning, managing, for public policy making and for decision-making in ecological tourism and related matters. For a comprehensive understanding on this issue, the study cases and projects of other Brazilian states and of other countries can be part of the investigation. The understanding of a variety of experiences offers the needed learning for putting into practice a tourism activity of low impact in a way it can contribute for sustainable development of Goias. The methodology includes the use of the ‘global positioning system’(GPS), ‘geographic information system’ (GIS) resources and georeferecing tools for locating the tourism destination and its routes as well as for making natural heritage maps. The softwares ArcMap and ArcGIS will be used in this project.