The tourist visitation in the Iguaçu National Park

Abstract

This article proposes to discuss the path of tourist visitation in Iguaçu National Park, one of the most famous and visited park in Brazil. Throughout its 80 years, the tourist visitation never ceased to be one of its objectives, nevertheless, this activity underwent a considerable transformation, with significant consequences for the territorial organization of the Park. The environmental movement and the instruments for the management of protected natural areas can be identified as reasons of these transformations. Also, valuation of nature tourism and the Park viewed as a business opportunity can also be pointed out the causes. Starting from the idea of ??event, ruptures and continuities in the path were identified, which allowed to understand the Park tourist visitation through three major phases: recreational visitation, monitored recreational visitation and commercial visitation, that extends just nowadays. It is expected that this article will contribute to the knowledge about the Iguaçu Park and, above all, to encourage discussions on tourism in natural areas, especially in the national parks.