Cananéia is the southernmost city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is a municipality where the tertiary sector is the main contributor to the economy parallel to the maintenance of artisanal fishing activities. The authors perform a study on the impact of tourism in the municipality area (performed through surveys in an attempt to determine how the different population segments [residents, promoters, users] see the activity and its impacts on nature and on the local economy). The majority of tourists surveyed come from the state of São Paulo (83.3%) and the rest of Santa Catarina and Paraná, with ages from 19-25 (36.7%) (70% having higher education). 43.3% of the inquired stated that tourism is not correctly managed (however without relevant environmental impacts). 93.3% of the boaters and 66.7% of the interviewed referred lack of information about the sites ecology and the drivers of change of biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate change. Questionnaires results clearly demonstrated the need for visitor information and interpretation envisaging sustainable tourism implementation.
TopIntroduction
Tourism, defined as “the activity of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for no more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes”, is apparently a harmless activity. However, still is a contributor to environmental degradation and there is a lack of appropriate global standards and multidimensional indicators able to monitor the growth of the activity worldwide (Moaes & Lignon, 2012).
Before 1850 travelling was a phenomenon that occurred more than tourism and travelling was something which was uncomfortable, dangerous, exhausting and took a lot longer than those we make today (Towner, 1995). Nevertheless, enhancements on road networks and forms of transport as well as an increase in income due to the industrialization triggered a growth in tourism in the latter part of the 18th century (Towner, 1995). Mass tourism appeared after the Second World War because the number of people travelling, since the 1980s, increased from 236 million international travelers in 1986 to 700 million in 1995 (Towner, 1995) and hit record of 1.2 billion in 2015 (UNWTO). Though, in the 1960s it was recognized the existence of a “consumer society” as well as the sudden increase of mass tourism that was in the origin of the environmental and social problems and that triggered the discussion of the potential negative impacts of tourism and consequently led to the introduction of sustainable tourism (Towner, 1995). Today the term “sustainable tourism” refers to tourism being sustainable.
Tourism, like many other forms of development, will always produce environmental impacts, even at low levels of intensity, despite the best efforts (namely in protected areas) (Eagles et al., 2002). Such impacts occur both at the site level, and over larger areas, because tourism in protected areas is drawn to environments which are inherently sensitive, being vital that the impacts are assessed as accurately as possible beforehand to establish if they are acceptable (Eagles et al., 2002). On the one hand, the tourism sector is probably the only that provides opportunities for all nations, regardless their level of development (Zaei & Zaei, 2013). Though, it is also a sector where there is clearly an irregular distribution of benefits, which are threatening the social, economic and environmental sustainability of tourism in some developing countries (Zaei & Zaei, 2013).
Currently, there are a plethora of alternatives to conventional tourism, which are used in the marketing and design of tourism products, being sustainable tourism one of the many (Goodwin, 1996; Rodrigues & Amarante-Junior, 2009). However, as this terminology is marketable, the conservationist nature of this concept has experienced misconceptions towards the market, having subsisted a confrontation between the standards for conservation and the investment income projections of those responsible (Rodrigues & Amarante-Junior, 2009).