Moradores e turistas: significado e impacto do turismo em Paraty/RJ

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the social impact of the tourism, considering its influences on local development and social inclusion/exclusion. For its contributions to the local economy, with the employment and income generation to the resident population and the culture valorization of the localities, tourism has been presented by academic studies and official documents as an important development factor. The difficult situations in which live many resident populations on tourist destinations, however, instigate investigations related to the actual level that it occurs. It was analyzed the conceptions of these three keyelements: tourism, local development and social inclusion/exclusion. Understood as a social phenomenon, in contraposition to its merely economic character, tourism is taken as a practice and activity that involves cultural and symbolical exchanges, impacts on the nature and influences on social behaviors and relations. Regarding the local development, it s taken as a process that involves citizenship, obtained by negotiations of interests and priorities of the different social groups, and it centers on the human beings as citizens. The social inclusion is seen as a consequence of multiple factors that come from social processes, with no absolute character. To the data collection, it was used two questionnaires one to the residents of Paraty and another to the tourists and qualitative interviews. The study identifies differences and similarities among the perceptions of residents and tourists. To the residents, the importance of the tourism is strongly related to the valorization that it promotes of the city, of the local culture and of the social relations and cultural interactions that come from it, when it transforms a small historic city into a famous tourist destination, internationally known. The population also recognizes the contribution of the tourism to the employment and income generation on the city. Among the tourists, the more frequent vision refers to the local economy activation and the elevation of the local culture and artistic production visibility. The study reveals tourism as a fundamental factor to the progress, in terms of local development and social inclusion, in Paraty. It denotes the importance of the union between the tourist activity and public policies, conjugating tourism and actions towards the local development, with special attention to the education, health and infrastructure areas, which will benefit not only the resident population but also the tourists that visit the city