Ecoturismo na cultura de consumo: possibilidade de educação ambiental ou espetáculo?

Abstract

The present work aims to study the ecotourism. It has investigated the existence of a preoccupation with the environmental education (and its leading principles) in the activities and ecotourism packages traded on the market; to achieve such aim it has searched to understand the term ecotourism from the culture of consumption and society of the spectacle perspective, and under such view, to discuss its relation with themes such as tourism and consumption, nature and environmental education; It has searched to identify the philosophical basis of the ecotourism work (particularly in its relation with the environmental education matter) developed by the operators of such activities; and finally, to do a conceptual critic on the issues considered on this essay. 03 operators of the ecotourism market and 03 researchers of areas related to the theme here proposed were interviewed. This essay was written based on the information collected throughbibliographic research and opinions gathered in the interviews on the field work. It was concluded that the ecotourism as a market activity isn’t much used to spread the environmental awareness due to the fact that the operators have a view of environmental education close to a formal education and such characteristic shouldn’t be integrated to the tourism activities – fun moments and leisure; it was also noticed that the ecotourism is an activity that evokes consumption patterns among its participants and reassures the capital´s spectacular time.