“Let’s go for a walk in the woods”: evaluation of guided visits to the Bosque Rodrigues Alves, Belém (PA, Brazil)

Abstract

Urban parks are excellent places for nature-related activities, but they often lack human resources due to their size. This shortage affects the guidance and management of visitors, who usually conclude their visits without giving information or being misinformed about the location visited. Universities extension projects, such as Guided Visits in Urban Parks of Belém (PA, Brazil) (GVUP), aim to address this gap. Originating from the Faculty of Tourism, of the Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), and currently developed in the Bosque Rodrigues Alves – the Zoo and Botanical Garden of the Amazon, located in Belém (PA) downtown area, the project focuses Amazonian zoology and botany, seeking to encourage quality guided visits to urban parks and, concurrently, to value their heritage. The goal of this study is to evaluate the project’s actions and the performance of its guides. For this purpose, students from the Tourism Bachelor’s Program at UFPA were invited for a guided visit, and at the end of the trail, a questionnaire with specific questions was conducted, subsequently tabulated, and analyzed. The results indicate a preference for this type of visit, with the guide showing good performance during the trail. The people interviewed emphasized the importance of the guide, as most of them had already visited the same urban park, but the information provided contributed by the guides to the people helped their understanding of amazonian biodiversity. Thus, urban parks are important places for interacting with natural resources, however, the presence of guides in these places, with adequate knowledge to guide visitors, proved to be essential not limiting the visit only to nature contemplation.