Tourism development: sustainable or sustained? Intercultural reflections on the case of Praia do Forte-Bahia, Brazil

              Vol. 7 Nº3 págs. 503-514. 2009
www.pasosonline.org
© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121
Tourism development: sustainable or sustained? Intercultural reflec-tions
on the case of Praia do Forte-Bahia, Brazil
Simone Alvesi
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Adriana Victoria G. de Hilalii
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Abstract: This article adopts qualitative exploratory research, undertaken by means of a single-case
study on Praia do Forte, a tourism destination located on the Brazilian coast. Use was made of second-ary
data and in-depth interviews with local residents, to answer the research question of how this desti-nation
could follow a path of tourism development in a way that differentiates it from similar ones; and,
as secondary objective if the degree of current development can still be seen as sustainable. Based on a
systematic perspective of tourism, we seek to extend the vision of development so as to include soci-ocultural
and environmental dimensions of sustainability based on Sachs' (1986) model. The results
indicate that three factors seem to answer the question.
Keywords: Tourism; Entrepreneurship; Tourism destination; Sustainability; Communities.
Resumen: El artículo adoptó investigación exploratoria cualitativa, realizada con base al estudio de caso
de Praia do Forte, un destino turístico localizado en la costa Brasileña. Fueron usados datos secundarios
y entrevistas en profundidad con residentes locales, de modo a responder a la pregunta principal de in-vestigación
de como este destino podría seguir un camino de desarrollo turístico diferenciado y, como
objetivo secundario, si el grado de desarrollo actual puede todavía ser considerado sustentable. Basado
en una perspectiva de turismo sistémica, buscamos extender la visión de sustentabilidad para abarcar
dimensiones socioculturales y ambientales según el modelo de Sachs (1986). Los resultados indican que
tres factores parecen responder la pregunta.
Palabras clave: Turismo; Emprendeduría; Destino turístico; Sostenibilidad; Comunidades.
i MSc., doctorate degree student. The Coppead Graduate School of Business. E-mail: simonealves@coppead.ufrj.br.
ii DSc., associate professor. The Coppead Graduate School of Business. E-mail: hilal@coppead.ufrj.br.
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Introduction
Historically, the tourism sector has been
responsible for the generation of between
85% of jobs worldwide. Being heavily
weighted towards labor and one of the eco-nomic
activities requiring least investment
for the generation of jobs (MTUR, 2007), it
has been of increasing importance in public
policies for development and social inclu-sion,
especially at the bottom of the so-called
social pyramid in less developed
countries (Alban, 2008; Lin and Guzman,
2007).
However, the expansion of tourism in
these countries, oftentimes in remote areas,
without economic reinvestment and linked
to small communities, can easily result in
the latter becoming dependent on tourism
as the only economic activity in the region;
because of this, the discussion surrounding
the long-term sustainability of projects and
related activities becomes increasingly im-portant
(Lin and Guzman, 2007; Chaves
and Rodrigues, 2006; Buhalis, 2000).
As a field of study, tourism is a sector af-fected
by tensions, antimony and mytholo-gy
(Coriolano and Leitão, 2008), with mani-chaeistic
interpretations which see it, now
as an essential factor for development, ca-pable
of solving an array of socioeconomic
problems, now as a voracious industry that
threatens the very integrity of surrounding
communities. In other words, a sector that
generates as many benefit as problems to
society.
This article presents a qualitative explo-ratory
study, discussing the sustainability
of development of coastal tourism destina-tions
in Brazil, with an emphasis on the
cultural dimension. From a multidiscipli-nary
perspective, it seeks to contribute to
understanding of the many ways of pre-venting
its undesired effects. In this way,
tourism may serve as a complement to im-prove
the residents´ life.
Thus, this study seeks to answer the fol-lowing
research question: How was it poss-ible
for Praia do Forte to construct a path of
tourism development in a way that con-trasts
with other similar destinations? In
other words, we intend to learn what mo-tives
or factors may have enabled the des-tination
to develop differently from others,
exploring, above all, those aspects that
involve the cultural dimension of sustaina-ble
development, following the eco-development
model of Sachs (1986) and
from the point of view of the destination's
residents.
Additionally, as a secondary objective,
we aim to explore, whether the present
degree of tourism development at Praia do
Forte can still be as long-term sustainable.
The case method is applied to Praia do
Forte, a tourism destination on the nor-theastern
Brazilian coast, located in the
municipality of Mata de São João, 60 km
from Salvador, the capital of Bahia – a
State which just in the last two years in-creased
the attraction for investments in
the local hospitality sector by 145% (from
2.2 to 5.4 billion USD, 2006-2008), ear-marked
for the construction of 23 high class
hotels1.
Review of Literature
In spite of the recognition of the positive
impacts (potential or real) of tourism activi-ties
on the economy, the negative impacts
on the destinations, their inhabitants and
tourism hosts have also been discussed
(D´arrigo and Bühler, 2008; Buhalis, 2000;
Pearce, 1982).
From an anthropological point of view,
tourism may be defined as a complex soci-ocultural
phenomenon, one that provides
tourists and residents with the experience
of alterity, representing a system of en-counters
between the local community and
its visitors, producers and consumers of
tourist goods. In this sense tourism can be
considered a culture-consumption activity
(Santana, 2003 in Pereiro, 2006).
Jafari (1990: 36, in Banducci Jr., 2001:
27-29) compares the perspectives of four
studies that relate tourism and culture,
subdividing them into four groups: a) de-fense
- “advocate the positive character of
touristic enterprise”; b) warning - against
the defense group and “extremely critical”
in pointing out “serious social problems
caused by [this] enterprise”; c) adaptation -
questions the generalization of the previous
groups and points to “alternative forms of
tourism that can have lower impacts than
mass tourism” and; d) knowledge - whose
main objective is the “formation of a scien-tific
body of knowledge on tourism”.
Simone Alves y Adriana Victoria G. de Hilal 505
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The present article, while being aligned
with the perspective of knowledge, also
embraces that of adaptation, as it proposes
to seek alternatives to tourism develop-ment,
being based on the needs and sur-roundings
of the hosts, according to the
principles of sustainability, while avoiding
a manichaeistic perspective, and thus
adopting the principles of cultural relativ-ism.
The notion of sustainability was raised
during the UN Brundtland Commission in
1983 (Coriolano and Leitão, 2008: 475),
meeting the needs of present growth with-out
compromising the future. Aligned with
this perspective, the World Tourism Organ-ization
defines sustainable tourism devel-opment
as a continual process that at-tempts
to avoid the characteristic problem
of losses of its value chain in the local
community where it is established and
which “requires the constant monitoring of
the impacts that the activity can cause (...)
the participation and commitment of all the
actors involved (...) [and] where the profit
must be distributed in an equitable way
between the activity's promoters and the
local population” (MTUR, 2006: 5).
The approach adopted in this article has
also been the basis for the majority of stu-dies
on the overall effects of globalization, a
process by which its very nature directly
connected to the essence of tourism
(D´arrigo and Bühler, 2008).
In studying the multicultural conflicts of
globalization, Canclini (1995: 101) observes
that national identities – "the combination
of traditions, practices and most of interac-tion
that distinguish populations of a par-ticular
city" – which characterize the inha-bitants
of a particular territory, have
guided the majority of cultural policies.
Two main challenges are involved: a) the
dissolution of mono-identities, and b) the
loss of power and the repositioning of tradi-tional/
local cultures, especially with respect
to the communication media advances.
However, to a great extent, such reflec-tions
when examined from the perspective
of public policy, focus mainly on cost-effectiveness,
with perhaps some foray into
environmental issues (e.g., the establish-ment
of new limits and controls), “such
does not happen, to the same extent, in the
cultural domain”. And in Latin American
countries there is still scant dialogue be-tween
the public policies of tourism and
culture (Coriolano and Leitão, 2008: 470-
471).
Within the academic field studies, there
are several studies on the cultural aspects
of the development of tourism destinations
including both international (Moscardo,
2008; Laing and Crouch, 2005; Reisinger et
al., 2003; Mataraso, 2001; Patel, 1998) and
Brazilian cases (Coriolano and Leitão,
2008, Santos, 2008; Coriolano and Vascon-celos,
2007; Gomes et al., 2006; Banducci
Jr., 2001).
In order to conceive sustainability as a
construct for academic research, it is first
necessary to consider the component va-riables
that comprise it. The present article
adopts the eco-development model, pro-posed
by Sachs (1986), which suggests five
basic dimensions to represent the con-struct:
social, economic, ecological, social
and cultural - with priority to the cultural
dimension, which "is one of the most impor-tant
components of sustainable develop-ment.
[Since] the extinction or profound
mischaracterization of the culture is an
irreversible process" (Coriolano and Vas-concelos,
2007: 103)
In this regard, the formal concept of cul-ture
from an anthropological point of view,
harks back to the definition of Tylor (1871,
in Laraia, 2008: 25) who synthesized the
culture, from the German term Kultur
(symbolizing the spiritual aspects of a
community) and the French term civiliza-tion
(referring to the material realizations
of the people), in order to represent “that
complex whole that includes knowledge,
beliefs, art, morals, laws, customs or any
other capacity habits acquired by man as a
member of a society”.
In relation to the cultural impacts re-sulting
from the contacts between the tour-ists
and the host community, which define
the corresponding degree of cultural sus-tainability,
it is important to distinguish
what type of change is meant, in order to
tell whether it can contribute positively or
negatively to the host community that
comes to have direct contact with the visi-tors
via tourism.
Laraia (2008: 95-96) asserts that since
culture is of an inherently dynamic nature,
cultural changes can be internal (resulting
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from the cultural system itself) or external
(resulting from contacts with the other, as
in the case of those motivated by tourism),
and “oftentimes, stimulate a change which
is more brusque, far-reaching and rapid
than internal forces”.
One of the most-cited negative impacts
of tourism on host communities is the
process of acculturation (Valachis, 2008;
Pereiro, 2006, Banducci Jr., 2001). The
concept has been used since the beginning
of the last century by the German school of
anthropology and from 1928 on by the An-glo-
Saxon school but only after the 1950s it
was adopted by Brazilian academics (La-raia,
2008: 97).
Another type of cultural impact often
associated with social exchanges between
tourists and residents is the so-called
"demonstration effect” (Valachis, 2008;
OMT, 2003, Pereiro, 2006; Banducci Jr.,
2001; Mendonça Jr. et al, 2000). The dem-onstration
effect refers to a type of loosen-ing
of the traditional restrictions of a cul-ture
via the “voluntary” attempt to “adopt
certain behaviours (and accumulate ma-terial
goods) on the basis that possession of
them will lead to the achievement of the
leisured, hedonistic lifestyle demonstrated
by the tourists” (Burns, 2002 in D´arrigo
and Bühler, 2008: 8).
The effect on the host community's "cul-tural
identity" is another negative sociocul-tural
impact of tourism on the residents
(Ramalho Filho e Sarmento, 2004; Banduc-ci
Jr., 2001). It´s a collective attribute, cha-racteristic
of a determined social group that
shares similar attitudes and which is sup-ported
by a past with a projected collective
ideal, manifesting itself as an established
social construct that enables individuals or
part of the group to feel closer and similar
to one another (D´arrigo and Bühler, 2008;
OMT, 2003; Pereiro, 2006).
The above themes have been addressed
in several academic studies on tourism
(Throsby, 2008; Sánchez et al, 2007; Un-tong,
2006; Steiner and Reisinger, 2004;
Wallace, 2004; Ramalho and Sarmento,
2004), since host communities are consi-dered
to be the weakest link, and, there-fore,
the most susceptible to suffer such
impacts during the development of a tour-ism
destination.
Methodology
The present work is a single-case qua-litative
research study (Yin, 1984) based on
primary data obtained from semi struc-tured
in-depth interviews.
The object is Praia do Forte, a Brazilian
tourism destination located in the munici-pality
of Mata de São João, on the coast of
the state of Bahia near to the capital, Sal-vador.
It has been cited in several studies
as a successful case of tourism development
in Brazil, especially with regard to paths of
sustainability (Alban, 2008; Barreto and
Alvarenga, 2007).
Bahia has stood out in the Brazilian
scenario as one of the sites preferred by
tourism investors (especially foreigners and
from hospitality) and represents one of the
top Brazilian destinations in terms of expo-sure,
international promotion and tourism
strategies. The Prodetur-Bahia project
launched in 1992 (Mendonça Jr. et al, 2000)
is one of the few long-term (20 year time-frame)
Brazilian planning programs and is
funded by resources from state and federal
governments, the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
among other relevant institutions, as well
as supported by private capital and local
universities. Geographically speaking, this
program divides Bahia into seven regions,
one of them represented by the municipali-ties
that comprise Costa dos Coqueiros
(literally "Coconut Coast") region - where
Praia do Forte is located.
In 2007 and 2008 seven projects were
expanded and inaugurated along Bahia´s
coastline, corresponding to a private in-vestment
around 150 million R$ - 70% of
which earmarked to finish the second stage
of the Spanish Iberostar's project in Praia
do Forte (Bahia Online, 04/03/2009).
In order to answer the two research
questions, we examined the secondary data
obtained from bibliographic research allied
to a systematic study of public access
sources. Primary data, derived from in-depth
interviews held with residents and
ex-residents of Praia do Forte, was also
analyzed.
Six interviews were held based semi-structural
interview framework in 2008,
recorded and lasted about an hour. Two of
them were carried in loco on April and the
Simone Alves y Adriana Victoria G. de Hilal 507
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others through web conferencing, between
September and November. The entire in-terviews
´ content was transcribed and codi-fied
using ATLAS.ti 5.5 for discourse anal-ysis.
All the interviewees were residents of
Praia do Forte (or had been for a least a
year) and continued living there (or visit
the place regularly), as well as maintain
friendships and family relationships with
current residents. An attempt not to limit
the profile of the group was made. So, it
was formed from a random selection of pro-fessionals
over 40 years age, with diverse
jobs and levels of education – including: an
oceanographer, a professor/historian, a
hotel professional, an architect, and two
executive secretaries. It also included res-pondents
whose experience as Praia do
Forte residents had initiated after the be-ginning
of the region tourism development
in the 1980s (two of them lived there be-tween
2001-2002 while the others wit-nessed
its development since the begin-ning)
but none of them was native of Praia
do Forte.
Contextualization of case under study
For a long time, the Praia do Forte re-gion
remained unknown due to its difficult
access - the connection to the capital was so
precarious that the trip between the two
cities took more than four hours - and be-cause
the northern coast of Bahia was
considered too far to be discovered by the
Bahian “elite”.
In the 1970s, Klaus Peters, an entrepre-neur
of German origin, visited Bahia to
build a factory and decided to invest half a
million dollars to buy the entire area
known as Fazenda Praia do Forte: a total of
30,000 ha (Vitória, 2001).
No specific studies about Peters’ busi-ness
history were found. As he moved to
the region at the beginning of the 1980s,
the data presented here reflect information
provided by interviewees as well as re-search
and journalistic material.
The information suggests that from the
beginning of his undertakings at the site,
Peters sought to regale Praia do Forte with
an "ecological destination" stamp and the
driving philosophy to his businesses was to
ally a structure of impeccable service, offer-ing
high-end gastronomy and leisure, how-ever
preserving ecological and cultural her-itage
of the region.
In order to build the region's first resort
– a concept unheard till then in the Brazili-an
market – Peters was concerned with
environmental preservation. So that his
Master urban plan (Curvello, 2000: 14) took
into account rigorous criteria to maintain
the original features of the little village -
located on his land and which comprised,
then some 1,800 inhabitants – as well as
contractually preventing the resale of real
estate by the natives (who could only pass
the land on to their children).
Another example of this project's results
is local legislation that protects the region's
extensive groves of coconut palms – prohi-biting
palms cutting and establishing that
for each one palm sacrificed, four others
must be replanted – and establishes 10m
(the average height of an adult palm tree)
as the maximum height for any local con-struction
(Alban, 2008).
Additionally, Peters' decision to contract
only local labor for his undertakings re-duced
local unemployment to practically
zero. At the time, that was something of a
rarity in tourism development, which, in
general, customarily disdains such labor,
giving priority to the staff of large urban
and foreign centers - especially for those
projects financed with international capital
(Coriolano and Leitão, 2008; Gomes et al.,
2006).
Regarding the publicity efforts to pro-mote
the destination, Peters' strategy was
to focus on the foreign tourist as his target
public, in a joint endeavor with the Bahia
state government. This approach while
reinforcing the importance of public-private
partnerships to a more-sustainable tourism
development represents additional com-plexity
for intercultural contacts between
tourists and residents, since different na-tional
cultures are involved.
Other uncommon facts are Peters’
sought of himself as a real "Baiano" (e.g,
"born on Bahia") and invitation to his rela-tives
for living in Praia do Forte, where he
lived for more than 20 years (Alban, 2008).
However, in 2006, Peters sold his hotel,
then named Praia do Forte Eco Resort &
Thalasso Spa, to the Portuguese Espirito
Santo Group and left the region. In the
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same year, another large international
tourism group, the Spanish Iberostar Ho-tels
and Resorts, inaugurated its first hotel
complex in Brazil in Praia do Forte and, in
October 2008, opened a second luxury
resort at the location. Both undertakings
are part of a US$250 million megaproject
that aims to build the largest resort com-plex
in Brazil.
The Tamar Project
La At end of the 1970s, there was still
no marine conservation program in Brazil
and the sea turtles were already listed as a
species threatened by extinction. Having
identified the main turtle nesting grounds
in the country, the Tamar Project was be-gun
at Praia do Forte, a place confirmed to
have the highest concentration of sea tur-tles
on the Brazilian coast.
Peters donated a house on his land, a
Jeep and a horse for the transportation of
Tamar´s team, helping to found the
Project´s headquarters whose activities,
since that time, have followed three lines of
action: conservation and applied research,
environmental education and sustainable
local development. In addition to being a
pioneering regional initiative, and along
with the local forests and mangroves of the
Mata Atlântica, the Tamar Project area
was subsequently categorized as an Envi-ronmental
Protection Area.
The Foundation and the Castle Garcia
D´Ávila
The Garcia D´Ávila Foundation (FGD)
was created in 1981 as the first investment
by Peters to act in the educational, envi-ronmental,
cultural, historical and social
activities of his businesses, with three main
objectives: to administer and to restore the
ruins of the Castle Garcia D´Ávila (the Cas-telo),
to preserve the environment sur-rounding
the two tourist attractions of the
region (the Castelo and the Sapiranga nat-ural
reserve), and to serve as a pivot be-tween
Peters’ businesses and the local
community.
In 1997, after 16 years of being dedicat-ed
exclusively to the surrounding environ-mental
preservation, the FGD presented
the first “sustainable development plan” for
the region including a series of initiatives
for integration of the village community
into the tourism development process,
whose main objectives was to enhance the
qualification of local entrepreneur and la-bor
force (A Tarde, 1997: 18).
In 1937, the Castelo was declared a Bra-zilian
cultural heritage and after going
through a restoration process – started in
1999 and only finished in 2003 (Cordeiro,
2003) – was open to the public. Today it is
surrounded by a rich archaeological site
and counts on lot of facilities as exhibition
center, shops and restaurants.
Results
Results indicate that at least three fac-tors
acted decisively and simultaneously to
differentiate the tourism development
strategy at Praia do Forte, conferring upon
its path a sustainability degree quite dif-ferent
from that witnessed at the majority
of Brazilian beach tourist destinations –
especially those located in small communi-ties
where tourism becomes the main eco-nomic
activity. These factors are: Klaus
Peters´ entrepreneurship stile, the Tamar
Project, and the Garcia D´Ávila Founda-tion.
The joint action of these factors seems to
have preserved – at least in the period be-tween
the beginnings of tourism activity in
the region in the 1980s and the current
decade – important aspects of sociocultural
and environmental dimensions of sustaina-bility
(from Sachs' 1986 eco-development
model).
The differentiating characteristics of
Praia do Forte “touristification” process -
seen as “a convergence of business, political
and economic factors” - was mentioned in
all interviews as being related to these
three “guardians of the region” factors
which, in combination, fostered the com-munity
belief in the process - “They really
believed in this undertaking. I believed in
it too. We all believed in it", summed it up
one of the interviewees.
The majority of large private Brazilian
tourist investors - especially those from
hotels and infrastructure projects and in
general represented by international
groups - started to invest in the Brazilian
northeastern coastline since 2000, often-times
with volatile and speculative capital
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and without any long-term community
commitment. In contrast, choosing to take
up residence with his family in the region,
Peters was able to involve himself directly
with the local governance structure.
Interviewees relate how Peters himself
would oversee the process zoning of the
region, walking the beaches and being vigi-lant,
even when there was no tourism nor
electricity in the area, which then was only
accessible by raft.
Also according to the interviewees, Pe-ters
always defended the idea that the fu-ture
for tourism activity in the region lays
in eco-tourism and in the democratization
of access to it, with distinct accommoda-tions,
both for the most demanding tourist
who prefers resorts, as well as for those
more inclined to stay at campsites (an op-tion
also available at Praia do Forte). He
was also concerned with “respecting the
village folk, really emphasizing the capaci-ty
to make homemade food and fishes”.
The Tamar Project is considered one of
the most important attractions of the re-gion,
as well as a catalyst agent for impor-tant
cultural and behavioral residents’
changes in their relationship with the envi-ronment.
Interviewees point that the Ta-mar
Visitor Center even attracts visitors
from the neighboring Costa de Sauípe tour-ist
complex, offering “educational [envi-ronmental]
entertainment”.
The oceanographer interviewed believes
that each local family has a least one em-ployee
involved in the Tamar Project and
identifies the current relationship between
them as “labor initiative” in which “the
turtles provide work and the people live off
that work”, without, however, needing to
kill them anymore as seen in the past. He
points out that it is usually a main objec-tive
in the majority of the environmental
projects and is known as “nonlethal use”,
arguing that “the Tamar has achieved this
(...): Before, turtles were food. (...) Today,
turtles are business; turtles are subsis-tence”.
The Tamar Project also seems to contri-bute
to the management of negative im-pacts
associated with tourism development,
through: the use of tourism products and
concepts appropriated to the destination's
available environmental resources and the
education of the staff of local tourist-oriented
businesses.
FGD, in turn, is another example of the
positive impacts of Praia do Forte “touristi-fication”
process, directly contributing to
the conservation and restoration of the
region's cultural heritage. It is also attri-buted
to FGD the role of workforce qualifi-cation
to tourism, thereby improving the
quality of the services provided by restau-rants
that have opened in the region after
2002.
The difficulty of managing the impacts
of tourism development at Praia do Forte
and some trade-offs associated with this
process, seem clear to the interviewees who
confirmed that when “the tourists arrive,
they bring employment and wealth. They
may even bring higher cultural demands to
the natives (...) but they also bring with
them drugs and child abuse (...) one thing
tends to go with the other, unfortunately”.
Other positive sociocultural impacts on the
local Praia do Forte community related to
tourism development identified in the lite-rature
and emphasized by the interviewees
include:
1) Strengthening and rescue of local tradi-tions
(Gomes et al, 2006; OMT, 2003;
Mendonça Jr. et al, 2000): As “the Ca-retas
(festival of masks) - a movement
(...) attributed to a historical awareness,
when the slaves would avenge the sla-veowners
by dressing up in masks like
the warriors of the Castelo used to do”.
Portraying the historical path of the
coastal communities of northern Bahia,
hailing from “fishing villages [in which]
extraction activities are the center of
economic and social life”.
The historian interviewed recognizes as
very important the restoration of the
Castelo in combating local community
trauma arising from the historical
process and the subsequent task of cul-tural
education of the local population
by the FGD - which “caused an increase
in awareness the reflected an ease of
getting along with tourists, by fostering
an interest on the part of community
folk in taking tourists to those places
that they had previously rejected”.
2) Jobs and income creation for the com-munity
(Gomes et al, 2006; OMT, 2003;
Mendonça Jr. et al, 2000): It was un-animously
recognized that tourism has
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provided improvements in the financial
condition of residents of Praia do Forte,
which “have grown and keep on grow-ing,
(...) from the boy who performs ‘ca-poeira’
to the waiter,(…) everyone has a
job”.
The importance of the cultural dimen-sion
and its impacts on the long-term sus-tainability
of the destination was a percep-tion
shared by all of the interviewees, as
someone declaration: “the development
processes can only be sustained if the cul-tural
processes can handle the challenges
that arise".
Moreover, the Master Plan implemented
by Peters was decisive in controlling the
speed of local development, something that
reduced subsequent future negative im-pacts
on the community. This fact rein-forces
one of the points recurrent in the
literature: the importance of an orderly and
slow growth, as well as an adequate public
governance structure that makes viable the
participation of the community and public-private
partnerships in the process. As one
of the interviewees pointed out, “involve-ment
by a local government that is highly
committed to the community and with its
orderly growth (...) because what kills a
tourism destination is disorderly growth”.
Other strategies suggested in the literature
to manage the sociocultural impacts of
tourism development on the host communi-ty
also mentioned by the interviewees
were:
a) Local community involvement in the
tourism planning of the destination:
which prompted one of the interviewees
to declare that is only dangerous “for
the culture of the community when the
community doesn't manage to get in-volved
in the development”.
b) Myriad opportunities for cultural tour-ists-
community contacts: which might
enable residents to “learn and live to-gether
with the many other cultures
here in a way which is harmonious, rich,
and beneficial to all”. At the same time,
contact between the residents and tour-ists
occurred naturally, as exemplified
by the Cocapilo dancing club, mentioned
as “a fantastic place where the local
people could dance – young men with
women, village women with married
men – without any conflict, without any
problem whatsoever".
c) Explanations of tourism-related ques-tions
to the community and education
improvements: According to the inter-viewees,
the role assumed by FGD bene-fited
not only the village community,
but also the neighboring ones. They
were sorry, however, that in 2008 this
initiative was practically extinct and
were concerned with the possibility of
the project not continuing since this
could compromise the future of genera-tions
to come.
Interviewees who had direct contact
with Peters and who were more familiar
with him say that by the beginning of the
1990s, he had already indicated three
points that the State ought to pay attention
to in expanding local tourism: looking after
the environment, improving the infrastruc-ture
and qualification the workforce.
Nevertheless, among negative cultural
aspects on the residents of Praia do Forte
associated to tourism growth, research
results point to both acculturation and
demonstration effect.
Additionally, expansion of the "rich
neighbors" – as Peters would refer to the
new tourism developments, according to
some of the interviewees – have already
been paralleled by radical local changes,
such as the paving of the main road in the
fishery village which abandoned its original
name "Alameda do Sol" (literally “street of
sun”) to become "ACM´s2 Avenue".
In fact, some of the interviewees´ state-ments
are quite concerning from the point
of view of sustainability. They suggest that
the region suffers a lot from the absence of
Peters and that his legacy has not been
sufficient for a new leadership to arise or
for the implementation of an efficient pub-lic
policy.
According to them the alert signs have
become more acute in the last five years
and can be ascertained from the “uptick in
construction” that “coincided with the time
when Peters was no longer around” in the
region, which began to receive colossal in-vestments
from international groups.
Other unsustainable aspects described
in the literature also mentioned by inter-viewees
as being noticeable alert signs at
Praia do Forte since then include: the ap-pearance
of real estate speculation, traffic
Simone Alves y Adriana Victoria G. de Hilal 511
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 7(3). 2009 ISSN 1695-7121
congestion and violence (Mathieson and
Wall, 1992 in Mendonça Jr. et al, 2000),
prostitution and sex tourism (Gomes et al.,
2006).
In 2008 there was also evidence of nega-tive
economic impacts attributed to tourism
development as the rising of land prices
(Mathieson and Wall, 1992 in Mendonça Jr.
et al., 2000: 41), accompanied by increased
inflation. As one interviewee observed: “A
small, fifty-square-meter house that some-one
built here: there was the land (...)
which cost almost nothing – today it's
worth a fortune. The [monthly] rent from a
house like this is equivalent to ten [Brazili-an]
minimum salaries3". And if, on the one
side, the fact can be seen as one more
source of income for the residents (a posi-tive
effect), on the other, it might be the
beginning of a process of casting off the
natural enjoyment of the site as residents
(usually, a negative effect, with ramifica-tions
on cultural identity).
Other Klaus's initiative that does not
seem to be respected anymore is the maxi-mum
height of constructions as a means of
environmental control: “These knock down
whatever they want and no one pays any
attention to that anymore”.
One of the interviewees compared the
current situation to the environmental con-cept
of “carrying capacity" also cited in the
literature (Buhalis, 2000) and which refers
to the "the maximum use of any site, with-out
causing negative effects on the re-sources,
reducing visitor satisfaction, or
exerting adverse impact upon the society,
economy and culture of the area” (McIn-tyre,
1993: 23 in OMT, 2003: 176).
This concept is related to three main
component restrictions that would define
the maximum number of visitors for an
area (OMT, 2003): ecological or biophysical
(degree of water and air pollution, erosion
or disturbance to life); psychological or
what can be perceived (sensation of crowd-ing
or concern with its impacts); and soci-ocultural.
In the present study it can be perceived
that at least the psychological restrictions
symptoms are already observed in the
present interviewees' discourse, as well as
the effects of a recent trend to regard the
place as a fashionable spot for second resi-dence
by the wealthier residents of Salva-dor
city (Gomes et al., 2006).
It seems that the group already perce-ives
in Praia do Forte some alerts of Cori-olano
(2007: 25) to the common practices of
“touristification” process along the Brazili-an
coastline: something which eventually
fragments and privatizes the coast “for use
as a second residences, hotel chains and
resorts – especially the latter. [And] the
community that had, in nature, a common
good (...) becomes banished from using it,
since just like any other merchandise, it
becomes a scarce good, accessible only via
purchase".
When discussing the current situation
discourses, at times displays a tone of con-cern
and hope, at times a tone of deception
and resignation as if (un)sustainability
were a characteristic inherent to tourism
itself or an economic activity condemned to
using up natural and cultural resources.
This perception is portrayed in the
speech of an interviewee who works direct-ly
with tourism in the region, one which
brings to the forefront the problematic be-havior
of the tourism entrepreneurs who
battle against assuming a more socially
responsible stance, preferring to engage in
a cycle of successive investments (and di-vestments)
in new "unexplored" destina-tions
(that later on, also become saturated).
Conclusions
Tourism has an important role in the
economy of several countries and appears
as a potential strategy for the growth of
developing countries, especially those en-dowed
with places of renowned natural
beauty and cultural diversity, as is the case
of Brazil.
Primary and secondary data were used
with the intent of answering the research
question of how it was possible for Praia do
Forte to embark on a path of tourism de-velopment
in a way that differentiates it-self
from other similar coastal destinations
not only in Brazil but throughout the
world.
Being a qualitative case study, the re-sults
correspond only to the perceptions of
the group of residents who were inter-viewed
and cannot be generalized. There-fore,
it is suggested its replication on other
coastal tourism destinations and contexts,
512 Tourism development: sustainable or sustained?…
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 7(3). 2009 ISSN 1695-7121
as well as the development of a more in-depth
study to Praia do Forte region, apply-ing
quantitative methodology to get statis-tical
inferences regarding the population,
or qualitative techniques closer to the eth-nography,
such as participant observation.
One of the limitations of the present
study is the absence of native residents in
the group studied. So the inclusion of na-tives
would be another element that would
provide valuable information in future stu-dies.
Another limitation is related to the
fact that many of the interviewees´ percep-tions
are from the past time, thus drawing
on their memories, something that could
lead to a distortion of what really hap-pened.
To minimize this effect in future
studies, the collection of more detailed sec-ondary
historical data is suggested.
Regarding the main research question
results indicate that three factors seem to
have enabled Praia do Forte to develop a
different path from other similar destina-tions,
especially from a cultural perspective
(as Sachs, 1986, eco-development model): i)
singular entrepreneur performance of
Klaus Peter, who spearheaded touristic
exploration of the region in the period be-tween
the 1980s and the beginning of the
2000´s; ii) Tamar environmental preserva-tion
and educational Project (also since the
1980s) and, iii) FGD cultural foundation
(also an Peters’ initiative).
The research strongly suggests that, at
least from the local residents' point of view,
the combined action of these three agents
enabled the adoption of strategic differen-tiating
factors that led to a more controlled
rhythm of tourism development at the site
which helped to improve the management
of negative sociocultural and environmen-tal
side effects.
Between the differentials is outstanding
the importance of active participation of the
local community in the tourism planning,
the maintenance of ample cultural tourists-residents
contact opportunities, and, lastly,
the fostering of education and professional
qualification of the local population.
Results exemplify one of the greatest
challenges to a more-sustainable tourism
destinations development: the impacts
caused by the intercultural contact between
tourists and residents (especially in small
communities isolated from larger urban
centers). This is truer, still, in cases that
prioritize the foreign tourist as the target
public where different national cultures are
involved.
Regarding the positive impacts of tour-ism
development on the local community,
that also steer the destination towards a
more-sustainable development are:
strength and revive local traditions and
values; higher income and better jobs;
greater environmental awareness and non-lethal
use of nature; getting back to histori-cal
and cultural roots (something which, in
turn, facilitates restoration, conservation
and protection of the physical spaces and
access to incentives for the recovery of con-structions
and historical sites); and, the
creation and maintenance of protected
areas.
Finally, the results obtained as a re-sponse
to identification of the current sus-tainability
degree of tourism development
(secondary research question) were notable.
Surprisingly, the testimonies show evi-dence
of a lot of negative impacts on resi-dent
community, mostly starting at the
beginning of the current decade which in-cludes
cultural changes, such as accultura-tion
and demonstration effects.
Although the existence of a causal rela-tionship
between the tourism activity and
the abovementioned perception cannot be
concluded from the present study, results
suggest that there is some correlation be-tween
the change in the path of tourism
development, Peter's leaving Praia do Forte
and the subsequent change in the model of
local public governance, combined with the
beginning of operations of large interna-tional
hotel groups at the location.
Although it was not the objective of this
study to pinpoint Praia do Forte’ present
stage, according to the Butler model (1980
in Buhalis, 2000: 105) for tourism destina-tion
life cycle, everything seems to indicate
that it is between the phases of consolida-tion
and stagnation.
So, at least two questions remain un-answered:
if it would still be possible to
avoid a future decline to Praia do Forte as
tourism destination and what could be done
to prevent this. Or yet, what can be done
and how, so that this destination and its
local community can rewrite their history
in years to come, inspired in the singularity
Simone Alves y Adriana Victoria G. de Hilal 513
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 7(3). 2009 ISSN 1695-7121
of their own path since the 1980s, for its
rejuvenation.
Of course, from a practical point of view,
this reflection can also be extended to a
global context as it is not an isolated expe-rience
but a fact already observed in many
international mass tourism destinations
(Buhalis, 2000). So, we can highlight two
points similar to them: Firstly, be inspired
by the Praia do Forte path from the 1980s
to the early 2000s, other tourism destina-tions
might equally benefit from search for
cultural and environmental public policy
similar supported strategies. Secondly, as
soon as there are signs of getting close to
the carrying capacity limits of these desti-nations,
it is vital to watch out for the re-view
of its own strategic public and gover-nance
policies.
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Notas
1http://www.jornalbahiaonline.com.br/index.a
sp?noticia=62
2 The initials of a Brazilian politician, Antônio
Carlos Magalhães who served three terms as
governor of Bahia State.
3 The Brazilian national minimum wage is
adjusted annually (465 R$/month, 2009).
Recibido:
Reenviado:
02/06/2009
26/09/2009
Aceptado: 28/09/2009
Sometido a evaluación por pares anônimos