Turismo amazônico: experiências no Alto rio Solimões, Amazonas

Abstract

Tourism is a social phenomenon and has proven to be one of the most visible contemporary practices capable of promoting significant transformations to the place. In the Amazon, in the Upper Solimões River region, in the cities of Tabatinga (Amazon State, Brazil) and Leticia (Amazon Department, Colombia), tourism manifests itself through the contemplation of the environmental system. The general objective of this research was to analyze, based on the dynamics of the place, the contribution of tourism to socio-environmental conservation in the Amazon. As for the specific objectives, we sought to present the different formations in tourism in that region, identify the local organization of tourism and its relationship with environmental conservation and, finally, describe the environmental perception of social actors in relation to tourism and its attractions. As a paradigmatic theoretical assumption of the thesis, the method of the dialectic of systemic complexity by Edgar Morin (1996) and the Case Study by Robert Yin (2015) were adopted. The data collection procedures were: bibliographical research, documental research and field research, in addition to the use of direct and participant observation techniques, interviews with a previous script, photographic records, collection of geographic coordinates with GPS, use of the voice recorder and field notes. The research results revealed the existence of institutions involved in the professional qualification process aimed at tourism, but only one for higher education: the University of the State of Amazonas (UEA) through the Center for Higher Studies of Tabatinga (CESTB) which offered the Superior Course of Technology in Tourism Management. The analysis of the curricular matrix, the pedagogical practices and the course conclusion works showed that the environmental system was made invisible, with priority being given to the traditional areas of tourism study (education, leisure and hospitality). With regard to the organization of tourism, it is more visible in the city of Leticia, due to the interactions in the offer of tourist products and services with a strong environmental appeal and the existence of public policies aimed at tourism. Regarding the perception of tourism by residents and visitors, they associate it with three words: knowing, place and culture. They understand tourism as “getting to know culture and nature”, as well as “new places and tourist places”. Finally, Amazonian tourism is proposed as a reflective category capable of thinking about tourism in and for the Amazon from a background that has a deep relationship with the environment, the need for environmental conservation and biodiversity as conditions for the continuity of life and also the reasons why visitors seek this place. Regardless of the nomenclature that tourism receives, they want to contemplate the forests, the river, the culture, in short, socio-biodiversity.