The territorial dimension in tourism development planning in Brazil: a centralized development model versus a territorial and endogenous model

Abstract

This paper analyzes territorial factors in tourism development planning, comparing two mo deis of regional growth: the centralized tourism development zone model, and the territorial and endogenous model.
The theoretical analysis is carried out against the backdrop of the development model that has been implemented in Brazil since the mid-1990s. This model is based on the creation of regionalized "tourism development zones", The development zone growth model, that inspired the "deve!opment zones", highlights aspects related to the role of regional specialization, in this case, tourism. Its implementation is based on exogenous investments that don't use, on an optimized scale, local productive resources. On the other hand, the territorial and endogenous model focuses on local resources and their relationship with tourism development in the territory itself. The latter is considered more appropriate to tourism development planning because it leads to a higher degree of endogenization of the socio-economic benefits generated by the development process.