Regional development in the context of the Peter Lund Caves Route - Minas Gerais/ Brazil structuring project

Abstract

The study resulted in part from a doctoral thesis from the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program in Leisure Studies at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The objective was to comprehend the process of implementing the policy of regionalizing tourism in the Cave Tourist Circuit area and its relationship to the RGPL. It consists of an analysis of documents involving plans, projects and meetings related to the circuit, as well as a semistructured interview. Three categories of analysis were created based on theoretical review: territory/regional articulation and political and social change. The results showed that there was an intense process of organization and reorganization in terms of planning and management of tourism in the region during the 9 years that were analyzed. The information collected points to the fact that the implementation of the regionalization policy, when related to the routing program, Roteiros do Brasil, in the region comprising the Association of the Cave Tourism Circuit, and notedly, the Peter Lund Cave Route, adopts a different orientation from that created by the policy: top-down and not bottom-up. In this case, the analysis of regional development shows the weakening of regional articulation and political and social transformation.