Percepção das comunidades locais sobre a turistificação da Rota Ecológica em Alagoas

Abstract

This study examines how the population of littoral villages of the municipalities of Passo de Camaragibe, São Miguel dos Milagres and Porto de Pedras (Rota Ecológica) perceive the arrival of small-scale accommodations (pousadas) in their places. Tourist activities are an economic segment that brings new life to the places where they develop and they re-organize the local space in order to meet their interests, causing simultaneously both positive and negative changes, which vary according to the touristification style that is adopted. There has been an increase in the critique regarding mass tourism negative impacts around the world. In turn, alternative forms of tourism development have emerged as a type of counterpoint to mass tourism. A number of pousadas that are similar to the accommodations related to the so-called “routes of charm” have been built in the Rota Ecológica. The pousadas offer particular types of services that are also somehow associated with the notion of sustainable development, in which the values of the environment, of local societies and the culture are emphasized. In order to examine the interaction between the pousadas of the Rota Ecológica and the local population, this study explored the geographical perception of key residents regarding the construction of such accommodations in the interviewers’ places. The study used a qualitative approach based on direct observation, photographic survey, and semi-structured interviews that were run with 12 local residents of villages in the three above-mentioned municipalities. Data were analyzed in a qualitative way based on themes related to the social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of the villages involved in the study. Results show that the interviewers have an over-all positive perception about tourism development in the Rota Ecológica based on the pousadas despite the fact that they also identify a few key problems related to the construction and operation of the pousadas in point in their places.