Se a terra te der laranjas, faz uma festa! Relação festaturismo e desenvolvimento local

Abstract

As a social phenomenon that affects both the way of life of visitors as well as locals, the tourism activity has been taken by political actions and discourses as means of development for a certain community or nation. Traditional folk festivals of remote origins, still very lively as a cultural practice, are part of the events calendar of many localities in Brazil and in other parts of the world, most of them taking place in rural areas based on an agriculture and cattle farming activities. The present research, based on information collected since 2009 and a field research undertaken in December 2017, sought to understand how the popular festivals incorporated the discourse of tourism, from projects that proclaim economic and sociocultural sustainability. For that purpose was used the "Festa da Laranja, Festival Nacional da Tangerina” (Orange Festival, National Festival of Tangerine), which occurs usually in October, November or December, in the city of Matinhas, Paraíba, Brazil. Thus, the central objective is to analyse the implications of the "festival-tourism" connection to local development. In terms of methodology, this research draws on qualitative parameters by means of in-deph interviews, participant observation and field study narratives, in which the oral and written text-context of those interviewed is the reference guiding the questions understanding. As a result, it showed that in “The Orange Festival”, in Matinhas, the connection “festival-tourism” is more present, not in the touristic activity itself, but in terms of the effectiveness of public policies, which leads Matinhas to feature on the “national tourism map” as well as to gain access to financial resources from the Ministry of Tourism earned by the local government to sponsor the Orange Festival and other festivities. In a collateral or transversal perspective, this connection moved the socio-economic and cultural structures of the locality, giving it visibility, turning it less isolated and stimulating the selfesteem and the belonging feeling among the inhabitants, what led Matinhas to achieve access to other touristic business spots as the “Fórum Turístico do Brejo Paraibano”. Eventually, this case study brought us to reflect about what the tourism activity is and the role of tourism public policies in Brazil, considering the micro realities of the called rural areas. Observing that popular festivities are a relevant locus to think about the local development, the tourism activity also proved to be a phenomenon which is present, either in the discourse or in effective actions in places that require a proper investigation, since research data deal with mega-events, mega-projects or “mega-realities”.