Turismo e identidade do lugar: a produção de artesanato de renda em Natal - RN

Abstract

Tourism entails a disruption of everyday life and is structured around the search for spatial differentiation, capable of addressing physical and cultural attributes that are attractive to the tourist gaze. The need for singular characteristics, inherent to the place, is fundamental to the development of the activity within the geographical space. In this sense, the cultural dimension and more specifically, handicrafts remains an important element of differentiation, as it brings together intellectual property and the identity of the place. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between the expansion of tourism and the promotion of lace handicrafts, examining whether tourism activity has contributed to the strengthening and dissemination of their production in Natal/RN. From the theoretical framework, it was possible to identify the factors that condition the uneven relationship between tourism expansion and the growth of lace handicraft. The collection of qualitative data was carried out through interviews with the Lace Makers’ Associations of Vila de Ponta Negra, in Natal and Alcaçuz, in the municipality of Nísia Floresta, as well as with the organizers of the handicraft centers in Natal. The results reveal the determination of the lace makers to keep the tradition of the activity alive, which unfortunately remains on the margins of both public and private interests in the state. Tourism has not contributed significantly to the expansion of this craft, so that lace production becomes part of this activity in a marginal and limited way.