A participação no turismo em cenário de mudanças políticas: instância de governança regional no Alto Tapajós, Estado do Pará

Abstract

In the face of the new democratic picture in Brazil (2018 to 2021), the core aim of this research is to analyze the participation of agents of the Regional Governance Instance in the field of the Alto Tapajós Tourist Region. This proposal is centered on the hypothesis, although the institutionalization of Regional Governance Instances (IGRs) has been reinforced in the political scenario of the last four years of the federal government and is (officially) providing answers to participatory desires, the way in which it is materializing in Pará’s tourism network weakens compliance with the precepts of participation. Thus, it encourages confusion between the participatory process and the marketing process, as they give legal and financial purposes to participatory spaces, to adapt to market demands. As a result of this, the proposed participatory model, with formalization and institutionalization, directs towards purposes that do not take into account the plurality of agents involved in the dynamics of the field of tourism. The analysis has as its theoreticalmethodological assumption the concept of field, which is an important tool, as it makes it possible to identify the relationships structured by tourism in a given social space (Bourdieu, 1996, 2004a, 2007, 2014). It is the recognition of the object related to a context and, mainly, to the agents that are inserted in the field of tourism, without limiting itself to a single nature or knowledge. The research is structured in a qualitative approach, in which the need to deepen social relations is considered, with bibliographic and documentary analysis as the methodological choice. Systematic field visits were carried out, carried out in August and September 2021, May 2022 and April 2023, in the municipality of Itaituba. The field visit was useful to discover and substantiate the study's problems, making it possible to collect information regarding the process of changes in Pará's tourism planning and the institutionalization of tourism governance bodies. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with agents inserted in a social space, endowed with categories of perception and appreciation at the same time (Bourdieu, 2007). The selection of agents interviewed took into account the representatives' representation in the Alto Tapajós Regional Governance Instance. The results reveal that the participation defined for the IGRs has distanced itself from its original conception, considering that public instruments aimed at the development of tourism and the expansion of participation in the tourism decision-making process give way to the logic of the functioning of the private company. Participatory planning, proposed by the Tourism Regionalization Program (PRT), is based on a logic of supply and demand for public action. The IGR Associação Desenvolvimento Turístico da Região do Tapajós (ADTUR), has great difficulty in assuming coordination duties in the Tourist Region, considering that there is no effective articulation (interest) of municipal managers in the region, as well as there is no plurality of agents, who can guarantee the participation proclaimed by the PRT. Another important fact is that there is an overlap of interests in the field of the Alto Tapajós tourist region, which prevents thinking about the region beyond an economic frontier.