Percepção e perspectivas sobre o turismo comunitário na RESEX Prainha do Canto Verde, Beberibe – Ceará – brasil

Abstract

For many years, community tourism in Brazil had a distorted meaning, far from what was conceived as a referential tourism and sought by the majority. Understanding the importance of this new type of tourism and, especially, the participation of communities in decision making, we chose RESEX Prainha do Canto Verde in Beberibe / CE, as the object of study because the place has been inserted in this reality since 1988. The general objective was to evaluate community tourism in Prainha do Canto Verde and as specific objectives, it is necessary: (i) to diagnose through the community the tourism activities that are being carried out, as well as identify the existing tourism offer and infrastructure; (ii) to know the perception of the local public power and of the representatives of the two existing associations, within a temporal cut from 2016 to 2017; (iii) to identify how local-based tourism integrates and responds to the demands and needs of the globalized tourism market. In order to respond to such questions, we opted for the deductive method, focused on the concept of perception to base a quantitative-qualitative methodology of the case study type. In the exploratory phase of the research, visits were made to the location under study, for having interviews and informal conversations with representatives of the municipal public power, community residents and representatives of the two associations. For data collection, we opted for the application of questionnaires and analysis of photographic records of the place. It was found that community tourism is not perceived as the main source of income for families, but it involves cultural, social and environmental issues coming from different models of tourism development, in a context where community tourism ends up not involving the community in its decision-making and participatory processes. On the other hand, the absence of a structure for the development of a more competitive tourism offer denotes relevance to this activity, with support and participation of the public power to offer appropriate community tourism, ends up polarizing the socio-cultural relations and economic interests in the community’s daily life. The study was considered relevant for contributing to the planning of tourism activities in the community, with a view to better management and harmonious development, involving tourists and the community. Keywords: Perception. Community Tourism. RESEX Prainha do