Domestic tourism and sustainability in an emerging economy: Brazil's littoral pleasure periphery

Abstract

The littoral pleasure periphery (LPP) is a major and expanding spatial feature of Brazil that is dominated by almost 200 specialised coastal resorts, beachfront metropolises and beachfront cities. It is notable in an emerging economy context for the extent to which domestic forces have influenced its development, including not just favourable geographic features but patterns of historical settlement, modernisation processes, national culture, and geopolitical motivations. Reflecting Brazil's economic and social dualities, the LPP exhibits two distinct models. The southern LPP, like counterparts in the more developed world, is long-established and displays an "organic" growth trajectory. The northern LPP is a hybrid of "organic" and "induced" impulses exhibiting more rapid and largely planned growth manifested in low density development. Despite efforts of a multi-partner regional tourism initiative the Programa de Desenvolvimento do Turismo (PRODETUR) to facilitate economic and social equity through targeted tourism investment, the northern LPP resembles classic Third World LPPs where mainly "non-white" local residents are often displaced by coastal development involving "white" investors and tourists. Unsustainable tourism outcomes are therefore indicated in both components of the Brazilian LPP and minimal progression toward an enlightened mass tourism ideal.