Os farofeiros em excursão nas lagoas de Arituba, Boágua e Carcará (Nísia Floresta/RN): análise de uma outra face do turismo potiguar

This thesis analyzes another side of Potiguar tourism , the unplanned side, neglected and kept out of touristic activities: excursionism, a leisure practice enjoyed by tourists with low consumer power, and who are commonly referred by the pejorative term farofeiros (picnic lovers). The geographic research sites considered for this study include Arituba, Boágua and Carcará lakes in Nísia Florest, Rio Grande do Norte, where on Sundays and holidays the arrival of hundreds of excursionists, from around the metropolitan region of Natal, from surrounding municipalities, and neighboring States, such as Paraíba and Pernambuco, can be observed. The objective of this study is to analyze the appropriation of the physical site by the practice of excursionism, focusing on its relation to other social agents that also appropriate a designated touristic area. The theoretical discussion considers the use of the space by the touristic leisure practice and the appropriation by distinct social agents, using categories of analysis, such as, production of the space, territory and leisure. The field work was completed with interviews and questionnaires administered to excursionists, excursion organizers, local merchants, representatives of the public setor from the municipalities, and professional dune buggy drivers; besides this, photos, informal dialogue and field observations were important methodological instruments used. From the data, statistical analysis and the development of thematic maps demonstrating the established flux between excursionists and the segregated activity were done. With this research, one can affirm that the practice of excursionism is neglected by the public sector, contrary to the intention of the hegemonic agent‟s intentionality present in this touristic territory which aim at the development of a lucrative activity, geared toward tourists with greater spending power. This ignored and neglected faction of Potiguar tourism is considered poor or dirty , and generate conflicts among the distinct social agents: tourists, the market and the public sector, simultaneously peaking interest, which is then appropriated by the informal sector and formal economy. Excursionism is an expressive phenomenon, a socially relevant practice, enjoyed by citizens of the working class who, in order to have a day of leisure, use alternative consumer practices and subvert various strategies of segregation that are imposed within these tourist areas, behavior that, in part, justifies the nickname, picnic lovers , given to these tourists

O papel do centro histórico na cidade: um estudo comparativo entre João Pessoa e Tours

In the contemporary scene, it is conspicuous that the patrimony and the culture have assumed privileged positions in urban policies, presenting themselves as instruments for transforming and shaping the aspect of cities. In the plot line of such glowing trend, the competitiveness among cities has drawn more attention, for at present such urban centers garner an image that makes them suitable for economic purposes, thus more likely to attract investments and tourists. In the spotlight of such stage, the cities become notable actors, directed by policies of urban rehabilitation. In such plot line, the historical centers gain more visibility and are converted into venues for staging the spectacle of everyday life. Overlapped in this process of producing images, the phenomenon of gentrification recrudesces. Thus, the discussion threaded about the patrimony gains strength in urban studies, keeping a close relationship with the ways of perceiving the cities nowadays. This work is based on the principle that the historical centers are engendered and fond by urban policies, working as transforming instruments of city perceptions and living. In that sense, the way how the historic center and the valuation assessed to old buildings are comprehended by the inhabitants is largely guided by urban policies that outline a sellable image of the city. In the light of such elaborations, an ethnographic research was made with focus on two different contexts, namely: the historic centers of João Pessoa (Brazil) and Tours (France). It was done in a comparative perspective, for it allows us to trace the main specificities of each situation in order to highlight the similarities and distinctions about the two regions mentioned above. The research aimed at apprehending how the pair redevelopment-abandonment engendered by the urban policies influence on the process of revaluation of historical centers by dwellers and to what extent there are convergences regarding such kinds of interventions, as an object of policies of urban and touristic development in Brazil and France. In order to make this work – besides the abundant bibliographic review carried out in libraries of several universities and institutions in Brazil and France – dwellers, merchants, teachers, representative people of public agencies and former residents of the historic centers of both cities were interviewed. In Tours, immigrants/Portuguese descendants were interviewed, point that greatly contributed to the understanding of the historic center before Vieux Tours renewal and restoration. Moreover a rich research on Archives and Public Agencies was done, as well as investigations on newspaper and articles on the Internet. Thus, in the context of the ethnography in historic centers, it was possible to notice that both realities reveal similarities in a comparative analytical framework

Situações geográficas em movimento nas praias da área de proteção ambiental de Jenipabu: das ideologias ambientais ao território usado pelo circuito inferior do turismo

The Área de Proteção Ambiental de Jenipabu was created by Decreto 12,620/95, covering the beaches of Redinha Nova, Santa Rita and Jenipabu and Campina communities in the municipality of Extremoz, and Africa community fragment, in Natal. This protected area was created in the context of expansion of tourism in Rio Grande do Norte, in the 1990s, in which PRODETUR investments made possible the installation of infrastructure equipment, mainly in the Via Costeira and Ponta Negra beach in Natal by inserting it in the sun and sea tourism route to Northeast Brazil. In this context the beach Jenipabu in Extremoz, became one of the main attractions for those visiting Natal, due to the natural elements of its landscape, its dune field, which is offered to tourists the buggy ride. In December 1994 the excess buggy rides held in these dunes led to IBAMA ban their access to buggy for carrying out environmental study. This measure resulted in the creation of APAJ in 1995 with the goal of ordering the use and occupation to protect its ecosystems, especially the dunes, the disordered tourism. Given this context, this work aims to analyze the process of creating the APAJ and changes in the geographic space of its beaches, Redinha Nova, Santa Rita and Jenipabu, from the materialization of tourism process, as well as their implications for its residents. To this end, this paper presents a discussion of environmental currents that developed in the western portion of the globe, focusing on the need to regulate small areas of the national territory in protected areas, and an analysis of public policies that enabled the implementation tourism in APAJ as well as the laws and decrees governing the process of creation and management. Using the theory of circuits of urban economy of the Santos (2008) to analyze the territory used by tourism on the beaches of Redinha Nova, Santa Rita and Jenipabu, showing their dependent relationship with the territory used by the upper circuit on the Via Costeira and in the Ponta Negra beach and its influence on the APAJ urbanization process. Ending with the analysis of the influence of the materialization of tourism in the transformation of stocks ways of being-in-space and space-be of the Santa Rita and Jenipabu beaches in each geographical situation of APAJ among the first decades of the twentieth century to the 2014. Fieldwork was conducted between 2012 and 2014, performing actions of qualitative interviews with older residents of Santa Rita and Jenipabu beaches, interviews with structured questionnaire with merchants of APAJ and collecting GPS points trades, identifying and mapping the territory used by the lower circuit in APAJ beaches.

Competição espacial no mercado de revenda da gasolina: uma análise nas principais cidades do Rio Grande do Norte

This study aims to analyze the relationship between average price with the concentration in the markets (municipalities) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, is using a little tool applied to the Brazilian market is the spatial econometric model. A data base contains all the stations of the major cities in the state of Rio Grande do Norte and includes 142 observations on stations was used. Theoretical models predict the relationship between the number of competitors in a market and the average price; these theoretical models include: the monopolistic competition of Perloff and Salop (1985), and the search-theoretic, of Carlson and McAfee (1983) and Varian (1980). The empirical results showed that a higher density within a geographic area is associated with a lower average price, thus converging with the monopolistic competition model and with the search-theoretic of Carlson and McAfee (1983). The parameters varied little with the inclusion / exclusion of control variables, showing the robustness of them.