Economia do turismo no Vale dos Vinhedos - Bento Gonçalves - RS - 1990 a 2005

Abstract

Tourism is known as one of the main industries in the world. It has been applied as an instrument of economic development in the Rota do Vale dos Vinhedos (Route of the Valley of Vineyards), in the municipality of Bento Gonçalves, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In the Vale dos Vinhedos, agriculture has specialized in grapegrowing and winemaking (viticulture and viniculture). Over time, the evolution of local agriculture produced a social differentiation process. The activities currently practiced by different types of farmers and production systems in the Vale present different situations both in terms of generating economic surpluses and their distribution among the agents who participate in their appropriation, consequently causing different impacts on the dynamics of development of this theory. In methodological terms, research followed the descriptive exploratory procedure of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The central issue of the study is to look at the development of Rota do Vale dos Vinhedos during the 1990-2005 period, and to identify wine and tourism as factors that drive local economic change. It begins by discussing the evolution of each activity in the economic scene; it analyzes the indicators of participation of grape-growing and winemaking, and then establishes a counterpoint with the indicators for the tourism industry during the same period, affecting the aspect of development from the same temporal perspective. The results indicated that all the types analyzed presented positive added value margins of contribution, emphasizing the systems involving wine-making, grape growing and tourism.