Community tourism and development from quilombola's perspective in the Jalapão State Park (TO, Brazil) and surroundings

Abstract

The increase in the dynamic economy permeated by a new logic dictated by the tourist sector, has presented itself as an alternative for the region’s development. This study analyzed how the tourist activity intensification has impacted on communities’s lifestyle and on the use of socio-community resources in the territory of Jalapão, state of Tocantins, having as a profile the Mumbuca and Prata quilombola’s communities overlaid by the Jalapão’s State Park – PEJ, located in the municipalities of Mateiros and São Félix from Tocantins (Brazil). Methodologically were used interviews and ethnographic observation techniques besides literature review. The results point to the tourist activities has been a important element that an inducer of improvement in the local economy and in the quality’s life of the subjects. However, the analysis pointed out that the tourism’s intensification in the territory has changed the lifestyle and the socio-community’s resources uses in the communities generating new demands and conflicts that did not exist before.