The regional forum of the sustainable tourism of Brejo and its Role in the interiorization of tourism in Paraíba/Brazil

Abstract

In Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil, the sun and sea segment is the main responsible for the flow of visitors in the state, being the segment that receives the most government investments in planning and promotion, to the detriment of the interior regions that figure in the background. The main policy of Ministry of Tourism is the Tourism Regionalization Program, which aims to manage, structure and promote tourism in a decentralized manner, transferring the responsibility for its development to the tourist regions, thus opening up possibilities for the interiorization of the activity. The Paraibano Tourist Region is one of the few in the interior of the state that has a growing tourist movement and an organizational dynamism that makes it stand out from the rest. Thus, the question is: What are the determinants of interests that move between the order established by public policy and the horizontal relations, of a more organic nature, forged within the Region? Are there more or less strong indications that the actions guided by the Program and those implemented by the Regional Forum for Sustainable Tourism in Brejo have been contributing to the interiorization of tourism in Paraíba? That said, the main goal of this study is to investigate the performance of the Regional Forum for Sustainable Tourism of Brejo and its contributions to the process of interiorization of tourism in Paraíba. This is a descriptive and qualitative research that uses bibliographic and documentary data, as well as data collected in field visits. The reticular perspective was also used as a methodological resource. Data were analyzed and interpreted through the conceptual repertoire of the fields of Geography and Political Sociology for the understanding of local dynamics, guided by the verticality and horizontality imposed by public tourism policy in the Region. The conclusion reached is that the increase in tourism happens horizontally, that is, the most significant actions for regional tourism planning arise in the region, from the articulation of local actors, mainly through and around the Forum.