Scientific Ecotourism in Brazil

Abstract

Scientific Ecotourism is an innovative sector of tourism characterized by the development of studies and scientific research in natural areas. We carried out a bibliometric research, searching for scientific publications related to Scientific Ecotourism, being able to characterize the current situation of this segment in Brazil. We searched for papers in Brazilian Ecotourism journals and Google Scholar^™. The parameters used for analysis were: 1) Occurrence of the selected keywords; 2) Type of scientific publication; 3) Year of publication; and 4) Natural protected area category. We found 60 papers, where 17 were discarded because they did not fit specifically the proposed theme. Considering the 43 selected papers, only five clearly mentioned “Scientific Ecotourism”, 19 only cited “Scientific Tourism”, and another 19 addressed the importance of scientific research in natural areas where Ecotourism already occurs or there is a potential for it to occur. The selected papers comprised the years between 1998 and 2017, and 67% of these, were performed on Conservation Units (CUs), showing that Scientific Ecotourism is an important management tool for these areas, since it assists the nature conservation and education, and stimulates the economy, both into the CU as well in the region which it is inserted.