Tourism spatial distribution in Brazil: a recent assessment using thematic cartography

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to: (1) describe the spatial distribution of tourism in Brazil; (2) assess Brazilian tourism growth and its location between 2007 and 2016; (3) discuss the implications of the findings to the understanding of tourism in Brazil and (4) debate about the methodological specifics of this work.Design/methodology/approachThematic cartography is used to explore and analyze tourism spatial distribution in Brazil. The proxy used was the number of jobs in the lodging industry in the years of 2007 and 2016, available at the Ministry of Labor RAIS data set. Descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank correlation and Ward's method for cluster analysis were applied in the construction procedures of this three-step process method.FindingsThe uneven distribution of tourism across the country and its concentration in specific areas of the Brazilian territory are presented in three thematic maps. Between 2007 and 2016 most of the growth in accommodation jobs has been in already established tourist destinations. There is a softening of accommodation Jobs concentration in large metropolises, and a trend that this growth takes place in more tourism specialized cities. Nevertheless, it is in small cities where tourism plays a significant role in changing local economies.Originality/valueIt presents and discusses Brazilian tourism spatial distribution. It assesses the whole national territory, with data broken at the country's smallest administrative level. It uses a data set that is still original in tourism literature. It considers previous research on spatial distribution and proposes a new method.