Contribuições de eco-inovações para a sustentabilidade da atividade turística no município de Areia – PB.

Abstract

Eco-innovations can be considered innovations that add a perspective of reducing environmental impacts, as well as economic and social results. On this aspect, a linkage of eco-innovations by a set of social actors, companies and bodies involved in a tourism activity of a destination can favor the achievement of economic, environmental and/or social benefits. Taking as reference the tourism activities developed in the city of Areia, located in the State of Paraíba, which stands out for its rich historical, natural and cultural patrimony in the region as well as the impacts generated by its activity in the sustainable development of the city; It is considered that the use of eco-innovations by social actors, companies and bodies involved, which constitute the region's tourism trade, can contribute to the sustainability of the activity. In this sense, it was the aim of this research to analyze the benefits of the eco-innovations adopted by the tourism trade components in the city of Areia-PB and their contributions to a sustainable tourism activity in the region. Two constructs were used in the analysis process: For identification and typification of eco-innovations and their benefits, the typology of eco-innovations of Könnölä, Carrillo-Hermosilla and Gonzalez (2008), adapted by Farias (2014); and, in order to analyze the sustainability of the city's tourism activity, the results proposed by Silva (2015) were used, whom used the SISDTur methodology to measure the sustainability of tourism in the region. Based on the adaptation of the theoretical model proposed by Farias (2014), in order to be applied on the tourism activities of the studied city, a data collection instrument, a semi-structured form, was developed to orient the field visits carried out in order to collect information on the variables defined to evaluate the relationship between adoption of eco-innovations and sustainability of the region's tourism activity. Twenty-five tourism trade components were visited for primary data collection. According to a weighting scale defined based on the methodology proposed by Farias (2014), these data were submitted to qualitative and quantitative analyzes. As a result of the application of the eco-innovations model to components of the city's tourism activity, it was verified that the amount of eco-innovations adopted by these components of the research were median, in relation to the options available on the five dimensions proposed by the model used, the main type of benefit of the eco-innovations adopted is economical. The result of the sustainability evaluation proposed by Silva (2015) classifies the city of Areia as partially unsustainable. In this sense, it was verified that there is an effective relationship between a presence of eco-innovations and the state of sustainability of the tourism activity of the city of Areia-PB, concomitantly eco-innovations that are adopted, giving priority to obtaining economic benefits, reflects on the evaluation of the region's tourism sustainability.