Contradictions and dilemmas of voluntourism: the experience in the community of Lago do Acajatuba, in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

This article uses part of the results of a master's research, based on the experience with the community of Lago do Acajatuba - AM, belonging to the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve, where community-based tourism activities take place, promoted by a tourism agency.  The research aimed to verify the perceptions of the subjects participating in the activities, whether they are volunteers, community members or members of organizations that promote the activities. The methodology used was: 1) bibliographic and documental research; 2) mapping of institutions operating with volunteer tourism through internet research and the snowball method; 3) direct observation, with the presence of the researcher in loco during a volunteer tourism activity carried out by the agency; 4) conducting semi-structured interviews with community members; 5) application of questionnaires to volunteer tourists in order to understand their perceptions about the activities carried out; 6) Selection of the key ideas contained in the collected data, their tabulation and analysis. In the on-site visit, it was possible to observe that this is an action more focused on tourism with occasional volunteering activities, which may reveal a certain distance from the initial proposal, difficulties in understanding the role of volunteering and the expectations of those involved, in addition to an incipient assessment of this action, which highlights the importance of paying close attention to these processes that have been taking place in the Brazilian Amazon and that have transformative potential in several aspects and which, for these reasons, need to be analyzed and improved.