Litoral à vista : uma análise dos impactos da atividade turística na relação indivíduo-território na Rota Ecológica dos Milagres - AL

Abstract

Having intensified along with the globalization process, tourism is now strongly present in the reality of several brazilian municipalities, often settling in traditional communities with strong territorial connections, as in the case under study. Characterized as small cities with a fragile socioeconomic context, the new market is inserted with the promise of improve the income conditions of the local population and also bring benefits to the region. However, the introduction of practices related to this sector at receiving spaces is not only restricted to changes related to the economic aspect and, even these, but also more tend to perpetuate the capitalist logic of unequal resources distribution than, in fact, to provide socioeconomic development status of the area. Therefore, the research that follows had as its main objective the description and analysis of the impacts that tourist activity has caused at the several spheres of the relationship between individual and territory at the Ecological Route of Miracles, located on the northern coast of the State of Alagoas. For the purpose of this work, we consider the changes referring to three spheres that cover the concept of territory used: the economic, the cultural and the political. In order to identify the repercussion of these conflicts in the forms of territorial appropriation of residents, we classified the situations found as deterritorializing (which restrict or nullify the use and control of space) or reterritorializing (the strategies adopted by the population to resist and adapt to the new logic). The methodology used was the direct observation with application of semi-structured interviews performed with 13 individuals belonging to different groups inserted in the tourism reality at the Ecological Route. The results indicated confirm our hypothesis that the mercantile logic with which tourist activity advances in the region has predominantly deteriorating effects on the forms of territorial control that the inhabitants have, even if they present tactics to resist and adapt to the new situation.