PUBLIC POLICIES AND TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE OF TOURISM IN THE STATE OF MARANHÃO

Abstract

The formation of forums, councils, colleges, development agencies and local bodies represent governance modalities for decentralized management processes, in the case studied, tourism. The regional division of Brazilian tourism has created Tourism Circuits and Poles, however, regardless of the definition of the regionalization type, it is necessary that the tourism development project be formulated through the involvement and participation of various social actors, characterizing movements that can be denominated such as territorial governance. These factors lead to the general objective of this article, which is to analyze the territorial governance projects in the State of Maranhão, highlighting the microregions of the Baixada Maranhense and the Litoral Ocidental Maranhense. Documentary investigations were carried out by the Ministry of Tourism, as well as those used by the Tourism Department of the State of Maranhão and interviews with key agents for the territorial governance project in the State, the Tourist Councils and Tourism Instances. The research reveals that the governance project exists as an organizational constituent of a sequence for planning, although, in practice, the occurrence of this process can be considered as fragile or only for the documentary composition necessary to reach the later step of the intended course reach.