EM CANTOS DA CHAPADA DIAMANTINA

UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DE TBC PELO OLHAR DE SEUS ATORES

Abstract

Community-Based Tourism (CBT) is a model of tourist activity that seeks to enhance the natural and cultural environment and has as its assumption the achievement of social equity and quality of life for social groups in a state of vulnerability. The general objective of this work was to analyze community tourism in rural settlements in the municipality of Itaetê, Bahia, based on the tourist itinerary called “Em Cantos da Chapada Diamantina” developed by ICMBio. The path of analysis included the characterization of the communities studied to understand their path and their current context, the analysis of the practice of tourist activity, the verification of the level of adequacy to the principles of community tourism and, finally, the identification of the potentialities and challenges of each community regarding the adoption of TBC. To analyze the tourist practice, indicators were established that measured the level of compliance of the settlements with the TBC principles. From a qualitative and quantitative methodological perspective, an exploratory research was carried out having as object three case studies located in Itaetê. As a result of the analysis, it is noted that the communities are in line with the CBT principles established by ICMBio, and the main challenges refer to the structuring of basic education and the implementation of professional training. It is recommended, for all of them, to strengthen community management, maintaining the role of settlers in conducting tourism. This research contributed to theunderstanding of how TBC is organized and conducted in Bahia.