Profile of Visitors in the Tapajós National Forest, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

The Tapajós National Forest is one of the most visited conservation units in the North of Brazil and has as one of its objectives the promotion of community-based tourism. Given this context, the present study sought to assess the profile of its visitors, in addition to identifying their expectations, experiences, motivations and tourist segments to which the visit fits. For data collection, 153 questionnaires were applied in person between the months of December 2020 to July 2021, with visitors in the communities of São Domingos, Maguari, Jamaraquá and at the Terra Rica Interpretive Site, locations chosen because they are the most visited in 2019. The study indicated that
most of the participants are women aged between 21 and 30 years, the monthly income is higher than three minimum wages, have a high level of education and come from, most, the states of Pará and São Paulo. Visitors are divided basically between excursionists and tourists and indicate that the experiences they had fall into the “ecotourism” or “nature tourism” segments and positively evaluated the visit to the conservation unit. In addition, the research indicated that it is necessary to promote the improvement of tourist services provided by the communities for a better visitor experience and with that, to contribute to the increase of public visitation in the conservation unit.