URBANISATION AND UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM ON THE BRAZILIAN COAST

Abstract

The concentration of tourism on the Brazilian coast is widely recognised, despite the fact that its development does not take place in an even manner along the entirety of the coast. As a result, the goal of this article is to examine the spatial diffusion of tourism-related activities on the Brazilian shore and seek to identify the places where it gains more prominence, along with the factors that contributed to its uneven growth. The procedures adopted included the study of tourism-related data as contained in two sources: the Guia Quatro Rodas [‘Quatro Rodas’ Motoring Guide] of the Abril Publishing House and the Brazilian Tourism Map, as published by the Brazilian Department of Tourism in its 2019 edition. The mapping and the analysis of the data allowed us to conclude that the spatial character of coastal tourism was conditioned by the pre-existing urban structure, and concentrated on the major cities. It should be noted that small and mid-sized cities, following specific interventions from the Government, became relevant destinations in the regional, domestic and foreign markets.

Keywords:
Tourism; Brazilian coastal line; Urbanisation; Uneven Development; Guia Quatro Rodas

Resumo

A concentração do turismo no litoral brasileiro é amplamente reconhecida, porém seu desenvolvimento não ocorre de forma homogênea ao longo de toda costa. Assim, o objetivo do presente artigo é analisar a difusão espacial da atividade turística no litoral brasileiro, procurando identificar as localidades onde assume maior expressividade e os fatores que contribuíram para seu desenvolvimento desigual. Os procedimentos adotados incluíram a exploração de informações sobre os destinos turísticos de duas principais fontes: o Guia Quatro Rodas, da Editora Abril; e o Mapa do Turismo Brasileiro, do Ministério do Turismo, edição 2019. O mapeamento e a análise dos dados permitiram concluir que a espacialidade do turismo litorâneo foi condicionada pela estrutura urbana preexistente, concentrando-se nas grandes cidades. Entretanto, municípios de pequeno e médio porte, após intervenções seletivas do poder público, tornaram-se destinos de destaque no mercado turístico regional, nacional e internacional.

Palavras-chave:
Turismo; Litoral brasileiro; Urbanização; Desenvolvimento desigual; Guia Quatro Rodas

Resumen

La concentración del turismo en la costa brasileña es ampliamente reconocida, pero su desarrollo no es homogéneo a lo largo de toda la costa. Así, el objetivo de este artículo es analizar la difusión espacial de la actividad turística en la costa brasileña, buscando identificar los lugares donde asume mayor expresión y los factores que contribuyeron a su desigual desarrollo. Los procedimientos adoptados incluyeron la exploración de información sobre destinos turísticos de dos fuentes principales: Guía Quatro Rodas, de Editora Abril; y el Mapa de Turismo de Brasil, del Ministerio de Turismo, edición 2019. El mapeo y análisis de datos permitió concluir que la espacialidad del turismo costero estaba condicionada por la estructura urbana preexistente, concentrándose en las grandes ciudades. Sin embargo, los municipios pequeños y medianos, luego de intervenciones selectivas por parte del gobierno, se han convertido en destinos destacados en el mercado turístico regional, nacional e internacional

Palabras-clave:
Turismo; Costa brasileña; Urbanización; Desarrollo desigual; Guia Quatro Rodas

INTRODUCTION

The diffusion of tourism along the Brazilian coast took place from the mid 20th century, following a global trend and gained momentum with the public policies implemented in the 1990s, aimed at promoting the activity and seizing a share of the global tourism market that was gaining more volume back then.

The uneven growth of tourism in Brazil, strongly concentrated as it is on the country’s long coastline (10,959 km) is pointed by Cruz (2018) as a consequence of historical and geographical factors that led to a process of occupation and population from the coast inwards, to produce high population densities and high infrastructure numbers along the Brazilian coastline, in an intense process of urbanisation marked by the rise of large cities with an strong growth of the road networks in the Eastern part of the country.

If one adds social and cultural elements such as the proximity to the sea as well as its natural talents for the installation of holiday and leisure resorts (BOYER, 2003; DANTAS, 2019), the expansion of tourism activities was very much helped by an abundance of sunlight and the proximity to the sea, something that explains the growth of the occupation of the Brazilian territory and the cities that sprung to life there (PEREIRA, DANTAS, 2019; DANTAS, PEREIRA, 2021).

However, if we can say that the uneven growth of tourism activities in Brazil is strongly concentrated on the coast, and on the country’s ‘Eastern portion’ as shown by Cruz (2018), the goal of this article is to point that such uneven growth also is the case along the coastline, that, is, to the fact that there are places where tourism-related activities is also present and takes sizeable strength whilst this does not occur in other areas, which makes it necessary to discuss the factors that led some places to gain the centre spot as regards tourism-related activities.

Therefore this article will attempt to study the spatial diffusion of tourism-related activities on the Brazilian coastline from the 1960s onwards, seeking to identify the locations where it gained the most expression, as well as the factors that led to such uneven growth.

When doing research on the diffusion of tourism in the country one notices that wider analyses are hard to come by, both as regards the historical and the spatial domains. As an element of difference, this study adopts the Brazilian scale in the case of the domestic coastline, along with a temporal insight that spans six decades (1960/2021), to analyse the spreading of tourism along the Brazilian shores within a historical perspective, something that sets this article apart from others done on the subject which are mostly of a specific kind, and to bring the theme into the light of a more local/regional perspective of discussion.

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES

Following an extensive search of official information on the tourist destinations chosen by Brazilians in the last sixty years, we found that only from the 1990s onwards the Brazilian Government defined, though their Embratur government company, the cities considered as ‘tourist destinations’. As a result, and given the lack of official data, the research resorted to an alternative source, the Guia Quatro Rodas [Motoring Guide, or GQRB] published by Editora Abril [Publishing House]. It is a motoring guide published on a yearly basis from 1966 to 2015 that provides relevant information on destinations, and their attractions, as well as routes and maps, along with info on tourism-related services.

This study used an issue from each decade as a sample: first one was from 1966, followed by the one of1979, 1980, 1999, and year 2009. For each edition we identified the cities that had been identified as tourist destinations and subsequently mapped so that the said Guide allowed us to identify how the spreading of tourist-related places took place on the Brazilian coast between 1966 and 2009. This research source proved relevant, given that just a handful of tourism related studies had been made back then.

To study the present level of relevance tourism has in the coastal cities, we used the tourist ratings of the 2019-2021 edition of the Brazilian Map of Tourism as published by the Brazilian Department of Tourism [MTur]. The choice of this research source was based on the scope of the data it contains, that covers the entire coastline, with data on the numbers of jobs and accommodation businesses, as well as federal tax collection estimates from such businesses, and forecasts on tourist demands, both domestic and from abroad, apart from a tourism rating given by MTur based on such numbers. This data was set on a spatial reference by a Geo-Reference System, allowing a view of the uneven development that took place along the Brazilian coastline.

In order to make a brief social environment assessment of the 22 small and mid-sized coastal cities rated ‘A” by the MTur, we used data from the IBGE Cities Report for years 2010 and 2019. Thus, this exploratory survey adopts a quasi-qualitative approach to discuss and present the results we found.

FROM URBANISATION TO UNEVEN GROWTH: THE ROLE OF TOURISM IN THIS JOURNEY

The study of the cities and of the processes of urbanisation done by Harvey shows ‘the role of the urban space as a channel for the absorption of surplus capital throughout history’ (HARVEY, 2012, p.1), taking the same road of the contributions of Lefbvre in the 1970s (LEFEBVRE, 1972). The author explains how the processes of urbanisation are linked to the need of expansion of surplus capitals and how the city has become a product in which tourism fits its marketing and consumption perspective that contributes to its growth.

In the domain of the production of space for tourism and its consumption, one needs to take tourism urbanisation into account. Mullins (1991; 1999) named the process under which the urbanisation of places undergoes the influences of the interests that drive tourism and leisure as tourism urbanisation. These urban processes, differently from the traditional Western urbanisation that came about at the end of the 19th century grew significantly in the latter part of the 20th century, in close connection to the consumption of leisure, an aspect that was characteristic of post-modern or ‘post-Fordian’ processes. Thus, if the traditional urbanisation processes were related to industrial production, in these cases they relate to the so-called post modern ones, in which consumption is more important than production. Mullins (1991; 1999) points that contemporary tourism needs to increasingly consume products and services, expanding the boundaries of such consumption, where tourism urbanisation is a part of this process, if we consider the relevance of post-modern urbanisation.

Tourism urbanisation, a marking expression of tourism, corresponds to one of the manners of insertion of places in the global movement. In order to gain status of a tourist place, this kind of urbanisation operates a destructive creation whose end goal is to insert the cities in a market of landscapes that are attractive for consumption and leisure (LUCHIARI, 1998).

Cruz (2002) states that tourism uses up space as it appropriates it for the consumption of services and of the landscape itself. The space of (mass) tourism is eminently urban and because of that an intrinsic relation develops between them that can be apprehended at three points in time: the existence of an urban element that is previous to tourism, that is, places that were already advanced in an urbanisation process in relation to the advent of mass tourism and that join the tourist circuits in a spontaneous or planned way, the occurrence of an urbanisation process that is simultaneous to the process of tourism urbanisation of the place, marked by a symbiosis between the phenomena and the process of an urbanisation that follows as a result of the tourist flows, whose lack of planning clearly shows a haphazard and chaotic urbanisation.

Paiva (2013) reminds us of the articulations between tourism and social practices, to reflect on the specifics of the ‘tourist space’ and on how, in order to understand tourism urbanisation one should understand its specific features, when he compares it with an urbanisation process in tandem with that of industrialisation. In this context, the relation between tourism and urbanisation in modern times is understood, where the processes of urbanisation are often linked to tourism, something that happens both in metropolitan destinations, given their central locations, as to the urbanisation that took place in peripheral ones, with their smaller populations, and less importance than the major centres but with a sizeable potential to receive visitors (PAIVA, 2013).

As regards the relation between the metropolis and the peripheral locations, it is possible to consider tourism and leisure as determining vectors and/or social activities in the formation of metropolitan spaces, that is, in incorporating the coastal places that sit close to the metropolises, due to their functional leisure/tourism relation (PEREIRA, 2015). In the Brazilian case, tourism urbanisation takes place more intensely in the beach areas. At the end of the 20th century, apart from the modern seaside resort practices taken up by the elites and copied by the less privileged social classes we can add the advent of seaside tourism linked to the real estate market, whose effects on present metropolises and metropolitan areas are defined as tourism metropolisation, with the beach areas being the most dynamic in the occupation (DANTAS, 2015).

A process of urbanisation formed that is both a means of production and the result of a process of accrual inevitably brings the marks of the capitalist mode of production, that is, inequality. From this premise, and starting from a structuralist standpoint, many authors discuss how the market forces generate spatial asymmetries, promoting the concentration of production and wealth in some areas whilst disregarding others, amongst whom we can mention Prebisch (1963) and Furtado (1961). In a pioneering study, Myrdal (1957) also identified that the uneven spatial development happened both in a global as in a domestic way.

The geographic analysis of the perspective of uneven growth advanced more strongly from the work of Neil Smith - Uneven Development - published in1984. For the author, the rationality of the process of accrual of the capital produces its concentration and centralisation in areas, to create an unequal space where the constructed environment rises.

Cruz (2018), in her turn, tackles the uneven growth of the tourism activity in Brazil, pointing at its marked concentration along the shoreline in a comparison with the countryside. The author strikes a correlation between the spatial concentration of the productive capital, of the labour of the fixed capital in the ‘eastern part’ of the country and the spatial nature of tourism, showing that ‘mass tourism grows in a dialectic relation with the uneven growth on the Brazilian territory, that is, beings both its product and producer’ (CRUZ, 2018, p. 4). This way, the previous pattern conditions the spreading of tourism whilst the latter, in its turn, reinforces the exiting pattern, stressing the concentration of wealth, and the urbanisation and the infoways (roads and airports), apart from other works of infrastructure that allowed a greater capitalisation of the territory.

An analysis of the data from this research ratifies the huge expansion of the coastal tourism activity, although showing that, in the group of coastal towns a pattern of uneven growth is also reproduced, so that it is only in some areas that tourism gains more expression and that such areas are strongly linked to the urban realm, as shown below.

SPATIAL DIFFUSION OF TOURISM IN BRAZIL: THE WAYS LEADING TO THE SEA

The 1950s were marked by the appearance of the car industry and by the growth of the domestic road network. This context contributed to the creation of some of the initial conditions for promoting tourism on coast line, especially in SE Brazil. The tourism-related offerings, restricted until then to business hotels located in the capital cities or to country hotels, usually located in hydro-thermal resorts, expands to nearby seaside resorts, located close to the main urban centres, which increasingly sought entertainment options. In this decade, and in the domain of the public sector, a Brazilian Commission of Tourism (COMBRATUR) was created, along with the setting up of the first official bodies of tourism in some state capitals (MÜLLER et al., 2011).

The year of 1966 was a landmark in Brazilian tourism, that saw the creation of the Brazilian Tourism Company (EMBRATUR), and of the Brazilian Council of Tourism (CNTur), and the start of discussions on the work towards a Brazilian Policy on Tourism, a sign that the activity earned relevance and that the public policies sought to recognise and sought to enable, promoting it both domestically and abroad.

The prominence of tourism, associated to the installation of auto makers in the country back then, along with the publication of the fist issue of the Guia Quatro Rodas [Motoring Guide] by [the] Editora Abril [Publishing House], a motoring and road guide that gained widespread publicising and popularity. The name of the guide, ‘Quatro Rodas’ [Four Wheels] suggests the motorcar, main means of transport of travellers.

In its first edition, the Guia Quatro Rodas rated 45 seaside cities as tourist destinations (Table 1), 26 of them located in SE Brazil (58%), 10 in the north-east and 9 in the south of the country (20%), with no city in the northern regions (Table 1 and figure 1).

Table 1
Number of tourist seaside cities in major Brazilian regions, according to the Guia Quatro Rodas – 1966/2009.

Region/State	1966	1979	1989	1999	2009
North	-	2	4	4	4
AP	-	1	1	-	1
PA	-	1	3	4	3
North-east	10	34	33	62	53
AL	1	4	2	6	7
BA	2	S	10	21	17
CE	1	3	6	11	7
MA	1	2	2	3	2
PE	2	8	7	9	10
PB	1	3	1	2	4
PI	-	2	1	2	1
RN	1	2	2	6	4
SE	1	2	2	2	1
South-east	26	34	37	39	37
ES	4	S	9	11	10
RJ	10	13	15	13	13
SP	12	13	13	15	14
South	9	24	23	34	20
PR	2	3	3	3	2
RS	4	7	4	13	3
SC	3	14	16	18	15
Grand Total	45	94	97	139	114

• Source: Guia Quatro Rodas (1966, 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009).

Figure 1
Location of the tourist destination cities in major Brazilian regions according to the Guia Quatro Rodas – 1966/2009.

From a total 15 cities on the coast of São Paulo [SP], 12 of them, located in the Santos Basin region were rated as tourist destinations in the first issued of the Guia Quatro Rodas. The coast of Rio de Janeiro, in its turn, appears in the first edition of the guide with 10 tourist destination cities, the highlights going to the Lake District and the Southern Rio de Janeiro coast (figure 1).

It is therefore possible to say that the Santos Basin area, the Lake District and the Southern Coast region of Rio de Janeiro are the first tourist destinations on the Brazilian coast, and that they have kept their relevance as such through time. This performance is most of the time explained by their proximity to two of the largest metropolitan regions of the country (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), which have expressive population numbers and are the main locations tourists will travel from

The 1970s see the participation of the Government and the main financing agent of tourism-related enterprises. Brazilian states structured their own departments to stimulate and support the activity with the goal of enjoying the instruments of financial and tax support provided by central government, such as, for example the General Fund for Tourism - FUNGETUR - and regional development programmes. The immediate effect of that is seen in the expansion of the tourism infrastructure, with the increase of the construction of hotels and convention centres in areas that did not have such facilities in the first place. An increase in hotel capacity in Brazil results from that, as well as the appearance of the first foreign hotel chains that seek to install themselves in the most consolidated tourist centres of the country (MÜLLER et al., 2011; ALBAN, 2006).

In 1979, or thirteen years after its first edition, the Guide had a list of 94 seaside cities, a 108% increase, an indication of the potential and vitality of the sun and beach tourism. It is worth pointing here at the context of the Brazilian economy back then, a period named as ‘economic miracle’, along with the rise of an urban middle class that discovered the habit of travelling, as pointed by Solha (2002). That decade saw the completion of the works on the BR-101 [coastal motorway], that would line the coastline from the North to the South of the country, establishing a road continuity between the seaside regions, and even between countries, as it stretched as far as allowing a connection with Uruguay and Argentina, with repercussions on the flow of tourists in the southern parts of Brazil, especially along the coast of [the state of] Santa Catarina (PEREIRA, 2015).

And it was at that time that the NE Brazil region rises as a tourist destination, as recorded in the 1979 edition of the Guide, with 34 tourist destination cities, a growth of 240% in a comparison with 1966. The highlights here go to the states of Bahia and Pernambuco. The southern region would also show significant growth, with 24 cities, with Santa Catarina taking the lead in such performance in the southern region. The state of Espirito Santo, in SE Brazil merits attention here as it doubled the number of cities included in the Guide. Northern Brazil is included in the Guide with 2 cities: Macapá/AP and Salinópolis/PA.

The 1980s saw a period of economic and political crisis in Brazil. The tax collapse of the State, with hyper-inflation and inefficient economic measures (economic packages and freezing plans) affected tourism with the retraction and/or stagnation of it activities. In 1989, the number of seaside tourist destination cities listed in the Guide is published with almost no change, with only three new cities entered, to make a total 97 locations. It is worth mentioning here that it is precisely as a result of the huge crisis faced by the country in that period that the governors of the states of the NE region find in the tourism-related activities an alternative to boost their regional economies, creating public policies such as the one on mega tourist projects and the advent of the Prodetur - NE (CRUZ, 2000; FONSECA, 2005; DANTAS, 2013).

By the mid-1990s Brazil experiences a period of relative economic and political stability that favours the retaking of the role by the State as a player in driving tourism. A process of privatisation and de-regulation is set up in many sectors, amongst which hotels, convention and leisure centres and facilities, as well as airlines, expanding the room for private investment. That decade sees a turning point, with the creation and setting up of the Brazilian Policy on Tourism (1996-1999). The role of the Government turn its attention to the coordination and management of institutional marketing, and to incentives to the private enterprise and to providers of basic infrastructure and access.

At that moment, several policies are set in place to promote tourism in many Brazilian states and the North-east region becomes an important tourist destination, with the support of policies such as the Prodetur/NE, that enabled the implementation of basic infrastructure in several tourist hubs and centres, such as sanitation, lighting, shoreline urbanisation, roads, and airports, amongst others (FONSECA, 2005; DANTAS, 2013; PEREIRA, 2015). That decade also saw a rise on the numbers of aeroplane tourist transport and not only that made on the roads.

In 1999, the Guide listed 139 tourist destination cities on the Brazilian coast, a 43.2% increase in relation to 1989 (Table 1). It is possible to see that the number of tourist destination cities in NE Brazil grew 87.8%; the state of Bahia increases its participation doubling the number of cities listed in the Guide and Ceará appears as a new and important regional/domestic destination (figure 2).

Figure 2
Tourist seaside cities in North-east Brazil, according to the 1999 edition of the Guia Quatro Rodas.

Tourism also saw an increase in the southern regions of Brazil, with an increase of 47.8% in the number of cities listed in the 1999 edition of the Guide, where [the state of] Rio Grande do Sul boasts an expressive increase (Table 1). However, the case of this state, the unusual growth did not hold, with it showing a poor performance for seaside tourism, with the cities located on the hills on the north of the state displaying the best results.

The year of 2009, saw a shrinking trend in 25 seaside cities listed in the Guide, in a comparison with 1999. Such a decrease may have occurred due to the addition of cities that did not have much tourist appeal in the previous decade, as was the case in Rio Grande do Sul, where 13 cities were listed in the Guide in1999, a number that shrunk to 3 in its 2009 edition. In spite of the case of Rio Grande do Sul being more emblematic, one can see a reduction in the 2009 edition of the participation of tourist destination cities in almost all of the Brazilian states, but for a handful of exceptions in NE Brazil (Table 1, figure 1). And here we should point the limitations of the GQRB from 2000 on a, with the creation of the MTur [Brazilian Department of Tourism] in 2003, the institution started to provide data on the constant growth of the tourism activity in Brazil, especially along the coast, whilst the Guide indicated a downward trend. It is possible that the change in the criteria that allowed the cities to be listed in the Guide contributed for this reduction, and as a result this source should be used with discretion. In this study the GQRB was useful for the analysis of the data on the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, due to the lack of other sources.

UNEVEN GROWTH OF TOURISM ON THE BRAZILIAN COASTLINE: WHO DESERVES A PLACE IN THE SUN?

Based on the Brazilian Tourism Map (2019b), the MTur assigned categories to the cities in tourist regions, as a result of the level of development of their tourism-related activity numbers. Considering only the coastal cities, we have the following distribution according to category: A (34), B (70), C (59), D (69), and D (7), as shown on figure 3.

Figure 3
Rating of seaside tourist destination cities.

This way, 239 seaside cities, corresponding to 86% of the total, have some level of organisation in their tourism-related activities, even if they are of an elementary kind (as is the case of the cities rated category ‘D’ or ‘E’). It is possible to say that nearly all the cities rated ‘A or ‘B’ are established tourist destinations, representing 37% of the total. When incorporating the ‘C’ category cities, which generally are the places equipped with some tourist attractions and services, one has 163 cities, which represent 58.4% of the total (Table 2). As a result, tourism becomes one of the most important activities on the Brazilian coast, a place it has held for the last 30 years.

Table 2
Seaside towns as rated by the MTur - 2019.

Region	Seaside Towns	A	B	C	D	E	Towns Rated	Rated as ‘A’ and ‘B’	% A and B/ Seaside Towns
North	21	1	1	4	7	-	13	2	9.5
Northeast	156	16	28	35	53	6	138	44	28.2
Southeast	54	13	23	11	2	1	50	36	66.6
South	48	4	18	9	7	-	38	22	45.8
Total	279	34	70	59	69	7	239	104	37.2

• Source: Brazil, Department of Tourism, Ratings of Tourist Destination Cities, 2019a.

Considering that the categories assigned by the MTur define the relevance the tourism-related activity has locally, the data on Table 2 confirms that the SE region coast is the most developed in tourism activity terms on the Brazilian coast where, on the whole, 66.6% of its towns are rated ‘A’ or ‘B’ and that in the state of São Paulo, of the 15 seaside towns, 13 - or 87% - are rated on the top categories (A/B). The states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro have equally relevant percentages for ‘A’ and ‘B’ rated towns, placed well above the Brazilian average, namely 64.,2% and 56% respectively. It is worth mentioning that the seaside towns in this region are bigger and that tourism co-exists with other relevant economic activities, which is not the case in NE Brazil.

Based on Figure 4, it is possible to see that in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, especially along the Rio-Santos road connection, is where the most dynamic tourism-related activity in Brazil is located, considering the job numbers, business activity and revenue tax figures related to accommodation and to foreign visitor flows. We should also point the Lake District (towns of Cabo Frio, Armação dos Búzios and Arraial do Cabo) Whilst the domestic flow is very significant in all of the area, the flow of foreign visitors is intense especially on the coast of [the state of] Rio de Janeiro, namely in the cities of Angra dos Reis, Paraty, and Armação dos Búzios.

Figure 4
Job figures, businesses and the tax collection numbers for accommodation businesses, and foreign flow in the seaside towns of the SE Region – 2019.

The South region also takes the highlights on the level of development of its tourist activity, with a performance that is higher than the Brazilian average. It is the region with the second largest percentage of ‘A’ and ‘B’ category cities, with 45.8% of its cities included in such categories. The top rating goes to [the state of] Santa Catarina, with 51.8% of its cities rated either ‘A’ or ‘B’, a scenario that is confirmed by its expressive job offer numbers and accommodation enterprises, along with tax collection and domestic and foreign visitor flows, especially along the Florianópolis-Balneário Camboriú axis. Figure 5 shows that [the state of] Santa Catarina boasts high numbers for tourism as regards jobs, accommodation, and tax collection, especially along the Florianópolis and Balneário Camboriú axis, with high figures for foreign visitor flows in these two cities (BRASIL, 2019a).

Figure 5
Job figures, businesses and revenue figures for accommodation businesses, and foreign visitor flows in the seaside towns of the SE Region – 2019.

In spite of the state of Paraná having 80% of its cities rated category ‘B’ and its being well placed in this requirement, this should not be taken in an isolated way as other tourism-related pointers (jobs, revenues and foreign visitor flows) are not seen as relevant on that state’s coast. The state of Rio Grande do Sul, in its turn, has a modest appearance in the set that was analysed, with the highlights going to the municipality of Torres, as it is a seashore resort that has been historically connected to the practices and habits of summer holidays of its local elite groups (SCHOSSLER, 2010).

The North-eastern coast of Brazil is extensive, with over 3,000 km, which amounts to approximately 30% of the Brazilian shoreline, covering 9 Brazilian states. From a total 279 seaside cities, 156 are in NE Brazil (55.9%). However, despite the expressive nature of its coast and the importance it garnered in regional tourism in recent decades, the level of development and organisation of this activity is relatively small in a comparison with hat which is found in SE and Southern states. Only 28.2% of the seaside towns in NE Brazil are assigned as ‘A’ or ‘B’ category, consisting basically of state capitals and some other towns. The state of Bahia is the one with the highest figures for jobs, as well as numbers of businesses and revenue in accommodation capabilities and visitor flows, followed by the states of Pernambuco, Ceará, and Rio Grande do Norte.

Figure 6 shows the importance that tourism has along the entire NE Brazil coastline, between São Luiz/MA and Porto Seguro/BA, although figure tend to be more expressive in state capitals. As pointed, other municipalities take tourism relevance and are rated ‘A’: Ilhéus, Porto Seguro, Cairu, and Mata de São João (BA); Ipojuca (PE); Jijoca de Jericoacoara (CE); Maragogi (AL); and Tibau do Sul (RN). We should also mention other important ‘B’ class municipalities in NE Brazil, namely: Fernando de Noronha/PE, Maraú/BA, Aracati/CE, Parnaíba/PI, and Barreirinhas/MA. The NE Brazil coastline also stands out as a receiver of domestic visitor flows, in a comparison with the other regions of the country.

Figure 6
Job figures, businesses and tax revenue figures for accommodation businesses, and foreign visitor flows in the seaside towns of the NE Region – 2019.

The Northern Brazilian region has the most fragile indicators. With only four seaside towns included in the last issues of the Guide, the Map of Brazilian Tourism shows only [the state of] Macapá rated category ‘A’. The data for relevance of the activity is the smallest in Brazil, in relation to all the pointers (Figure 7).

Figure 7
Figures for jobs, businesses and tax revenues in the accommodation and foreign visitor flows in tourist destination towns at the seaside in Northern Brazil – 2019.

The main explaining factors as regards the concentration of tourism on the Brazilian coast have their roots in historical and cultural elements. However, when going deeper in the analysis, one finds that the activity is more significant in some Brazilian locations. To give an example of the uneven development of tourism-related activities, it is enough to mention that, of the 239 seaside towns listed by the MTur, only 34 are rated as category ‘A’, including capitals (12) and some other 22 small and mid-sized towns (Table 3).

Table 3
Data on category ‘A’ seaside tourist destinations, with the exception of capital cities.

UT{state of the federation]	City:	As listed in the Guia Quatro Rodas	Estimated Population (2019)	DHM [Human Development Index] (2010)	Sewage Systems % (2010)	Urbanisation of Adequate Public Ways (2010)	Distance in km from state capital
AL	Maragogi	1579	52.704	0.574	38.8	16.3	125
EA	Cairu	1999	18,176	0.627	44.8	20	140
EA	Ilhéus	1979	162,327	0.69	65.9	23.1	303
BA	Mata de São João	1999	46.533	0.668	42.8	15.2	56
BA	Porto Seguro	1979	143,636	0.676	66.7	12.5	707
CE	Jijoca de Jericoacoara	1999	19.816	0.652	13.6	1.2	370
PE	Ipojuca	1999	96.204	0.619	50.6	22.1	43
RN	Tibau do Sul	1999	14.130	0.645	19.8	0.9	77
RJ	Angra dos Reis	1966	203,785	0.724	84.9	33.3	157
RJ	Armação dos Búzios	1999	33,870	0.728	89.6	25.2	160
RJ	Cabo Frio	1966	226,525	0.735	82.3	63.7	155
RJ	Macaé	1966	256,672	0.764	82.3	50.1	180
RJ	Paraty	1966	43,165	0.693	56.4	30.9	253
SP	Guarujá	1966	320,459	0.751	82.4	63.5	95
SP	Ilhabela	1966	34,970	0.756	36.0	9.5	212
SP	Praia Grande	1979	325,073	0.754	92.9	71.3	72
SP	Santos	1966	433,311	0.84	95.1	84.7	77
SP	São Sebastião	1966	88,980	0.772	82.1	17.7	197
SP	Ubatuba	1966	90,799	0.751	60.3	5.9	223
SC	Balneário Camboriú	1979	142,295	0.845	98.7	89.6	80
SC	Bombinhas	1999	19,769	0.781	94.2	20.4	75
SC	Itapema	1979	65,312	0.796	86.6	55.1	67

• Sources: IBGE Cidades; Guia Quatro Rodas.

Tourism spread from the Lower Santos Basin in São Paulo and from the Lake District in Rio de Janeiro, along the Rio-Santos (BR-101) motorway. Some destination located in the Santos Basin already were visited by beach goers at the end of the 19th century (Guarujá and Santos), whilst in Praia Grande/SP and in Balneário Camboriú/SC the summer holiday season starts from 1920. In the 1990s these practices were disseminated to Ubatuba/SP and Cabo Frio and Armação dos Búzios/RJ. The 1960s would see the addition of Ilha Bela/SP, São Sebastião/SP, Itapema/SC, and Bombinhas/SC. The 1970s would see the growth of seaside tourism to the coast of Rio de Janeiro, namely Paraty, Angra dos Reis and Macaé. With no doubt, the city of Rio de Janeiro was always the most important incoming centre in the country, as regards foreign tourists. Amongst the factors that had the most relevance in the expansion of tourism-related activities in these locations we can point at:

• Consolidated urbanisation;

• Ease of access;

• The location of the towns in relation to the two largest Brazilian metropolises (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), main issuing agents for tourists and with an ever-growing demand;

• Proximity of these towns to their respective state capitals where the majority is a minimum 200 km away from their respective state capitals.

In NE Brazil, the highlights go to the state capitals located by the e, with a repetition of the patterns of consolidated urbanisation, basic infrastructure, and accessibility by land and air.

As pointed by Cruz (2018) the fixed and pre-existing elements (urbanisation, infrastructure, accessibility) conditioned the growth of tourism, being the main factors that explain the uneven growth of tourism on the coast, being more frequent in the metropolises or in large cities.

However, some tourist locations, especially those located in NE Brazil, extrapolate this pattern, as development did take place in areas with poor infrastructure, including those that are difficult to get to. And gradually the infrastructure was implemented as a result of public policies. At present, these locations are important tourist destinations (Table 3).

In these cases, the process that made these places into full tourist destinations started with their ‘discovery’ by hippies and/or surfers, as it was the case in Cairu and Porto Seguro in Bahia,and in Jijoca de Jericoacoara, in [the state of] Ceará, as well as in Ipojuca in Pernambuco, and in Tibau do Sul in Rio Grande do Norte. The growth of tourism in those places occurred from the 1980s on (except for Tibau do Sul, whose ‘discovery' as a tourist destination occurred in the 1970s) and in a spontaneous way. The myth of an ‘untouched Nature’ (DIEGUES, 2008) already was in the minds of young tourists at that time. And tourism contributed strongly to promote the urbanisation in those places.

Based on Table 3, that contains only category ‘A’ seaside towns, except state capital cities, it is possible to conclude that:

• Tourism is more developed in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with, respectively 6 and 5 municipalities rated ‘A’. Bahia follows them with 4, whilst Santa Catarina has 3 towns. The remaining NE Brazil states (AL, CE, RN and PE) have only 1 ‘A’ rated town. We should point here that the NE Brazil states of Sergipe, Paraíba, Maranhão, and Piauí have no ‘A’ rated towns, apart from their own respective capitals.

• As regards the population size, these locations are included in the group of small and mid-sized towns, the most populous ones being in the state of São Paulo (Santos, Praia Grande, and Guarujá) and in Rio de Janeiro (Macaé, Cabo Frio, and Angra dos Reis). In the states of NE Brazil and in Santa Catarina have a predominance of small towns;

• The highest City Human Development Indices (IDHMs) are found in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catarina. Santos and Balneário Camboriú have the highest indices. The lowest indices are in NE Brazil, with Maragogi, in the state of Alagoas displaying the smallest IDHM;

• As regards the sewage systems and the urbanisation of adequate public ways, the best indices are found in the South-eastern and Southern regions, with highlights going to Santos, Praia Grande, and Balneário Camboriú;

• The oldest tourist destinations are located in the more affluent regions (SP, RJ and SC) and display the highest social and basic infrastructure figures. Their urbanisation did, in a general way, precede tourism;

• The most recent tourist destinations are located in NE Brazil and have more frail indices. Tourism did, in a general way, precede their urbanisation;

CONCLUSION

At the start of the early 20th century, the coastal regions of the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were the first to consolidate themselves as tourist destinations, as regards the sun-beach binomial. The pioneering quality of tourism on the SE coast of Brazil is linked to three main factors: proximity to the largest urban centres of the country, road access (along with the growth of the auto making industry), and public and private investment (especially in the hotel industry), and real estate speculation associated to the phenomenon of second residence.

In this period, only five towns in NE Brazil were included in the 1966 Guia Quatro Rodas (Salvador, Recife, São Luís, Ilhéus, and Olinda), towns that historically concentrated the best conditions for urban infrastructure and accessibility, along with the highest population numbers; only four seaside towns in southern Brazil are listed (as leisure destinations for the local elites), and not one from the northern region is included. This panorama is significantly changed in the 1970s and 1990s, that saw the widest growth of tourism-related activities on the Brazilian coast.

With the exception of only the Northern region, tourism gains economic strength end expression in many seaside towns, albeit with significant differences in terms of the levels of development of the activity. The South-east and South regions have the highest pointers in the industry, concentrated especially on the Baixada Santista [Lower Santos Basin] to Armação dos Búzios/RJ section, and in the Paranaguá/PR to Florianópolis/SC section, respectively. In the NE Brazil region, the seaside cities continue to concentrate the highest numbers of the industry, as tourism becomes an expressive activity in some small towns, such as: Porto Seguro, Cairu, and Mata de São João (BA); Ipojuca (PE); Jijoca de Jericoacoara (CE); Maragogi (AL); and Tibau do Sul (RN).

It is possible to conclude that the sun & beach tourism is found in nearly all the coastal towns, even if its growth is uneven along the coast. The spatial character of seaside tourism is conditioned by the pre-existing structure and, in a general way, reinforces the previous pattern, being concentrated on the biggest cities and coastal metropolises. Even in places with little infrastructure to develop tourism on, the specific action of governments sought to repair the deficiencies (without harming the fragile social indicators), and promoting from being places visited by backpackers (hippies/surfers) or beach goers to destinations of relevance in the tourist market, regional, domestic and even international, something that led to a significant process of urbanisation. Therefore, urbanisation is a key factor to understand the causes that allowed the concentration of tourism in some places on the Brazilian coast.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  14 Oct 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  28 Dec 2021
• Accepted
  08 June 2022
• Published
  15 July 2022