A emergência da urbanização turística com base na rede hoteleira da cidade de Maceió-Alagoas

Abstract

The theme of this research is the emergency of tourist urbanization based on hotel chain of Maceió – Alagoas. Our goal is to investigate the process of urbanization of the city of Maceió from the implantation of its hotel network. The realization of this study is justified by the recent expansion of the hotel chain in Maceió, which extended mainly along the seafront of the city, including the expansion of the urban space. We used a qualitative methodology by collecting data from photographic survey, research in public and private agencies, annotations in the field book and non-directive interviews. After this, all collect data was analyzed together. We add a bibliographical review listing concepts and propositions of the main authors who study tourist urbanization, tourism and leisure, urban space and the main agents producing tourism. This theoretical framework supports data analysis. The results indicate the existence of four phases on Maceió hotel chain development. The installation of the hotels began in the center of the city. On that time, the demand to hotels was to bureaucratic questions linked to the State. In this perspective, we verified that the buildings from the hotels in de center are deprived and used to other purposes nowadays. The installation of new equipment in other sites redefined the destination of lodging in the capital of Alagoas. The increased in tourist demand contributed to install new equipment in areas that were being incorporated into the initial urban space. We note that the second phase of expansion took place around Praia da Avenida, having its apogee until the eighties of the twentieth century. After this, a third phase of installation of the hotel chain started in Pajuçara, Ponta Verde and Jatiúca arises. The fourth phase corresponds to installation of large tourist enterprises such as the various resorts, as well as a large number of hotels in the neighborhoods located in the north of the capital, such as Cruz das Almas, Ipioca, Riacho Doce, Pescaria, Jacarecica and Guaxuma. We can attest that Maceió, for having become a tourist destination of great prominence in the last two decades, has obtained an increase in the number of new equipment of accomodation, mainly for being a destiny of sun and beach mass tourism. In view of the above, the results of this dissertation can contribute to new studies to generate knowledge and increase the number of publications on this subject little publicized in the literature.