Tourism and Production of Space in the City of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Tourism is an activity that should be considered in all its complexity and contradiction as it is, while a seated economic activity in a capitalist market system, and therefore subject to its effects, and a social practice. While economic activity, tourism is in the midst of urban entrepreneurship activity that sees a contribution to economic growth hidden under the ideological aspects of development. This paper proposes an analysis and reflection on the strategies of the capital to promote the (re) production of space in the city of Rio de Janeiro and its transformation into a tourist place, targeting its reproduction from the creation of spaces for specific uses intended for leisure . In this direction, the contribution of tourism as a development appears imbued with ideological aspects and therefore limited to the construction of unequal spaces, as seated in a market system that has at its core the production of inequalities. The analysis area is the port area of Rio de Janeiro which is currently experiencing intense process of (re) structuring urban and landscape in order to meet the rehabilitation needs of the city's present international circuits of capital, cathcing the opportunities of mega sports events . To perform this work, some visits were made in the port area for the production of images and empirical observations and interviews were conducted on the Morro da Providência (Providência Hill) to investigate the consequences of the government's initiative in daily life of its residents, to transform the area port in tourist area.