Tourism in Remote Islands of the Coast of Paraná-Brazil

Abstract

The coast of Paraná has dozens of islands classified as remote due to the distance from the coast and also due to the difficulty of access, in the last decade it was observed that there was a demand for tourists for these locations, however, no studies were found that promoted a diagnosis about this tourist segment in the region. In face of this context, an exploratory descriptive and quantitative research was carried out by means of a semi-structured questionnaire in a sample by accessibility along with 52 tourists in the moment they visited the remote islands on the coast of Paraná. The study revealed that the main reasons that led tourists to visit the remote islands, were the contact with the intact nature, the beauty of the islands' scenery and the gastronomy in the islands. The study revealed that similarly to a worldwide trend, single people had an average number of visits much higher than the other classes evaluated in terms of marital status, and a moderate trend was also observed as education advanced, the frequency of visits increased to the remote islands. The greatest difficulties that limited tourists from visiting the islands were the few available schedules for transportation, the high cost of the visit and the inns classified as not prepared to accommodate in a satisfactory manner.  The interviewees do not have the financial resources to be able to invest in improvements, nor do they have access to the financing system for improvements of the structures for the reception of tourists. In face of the assertion of the majority of the tourists in regard to the cost-benefit ratio does not satisfy, the strategy of market penetration and expansion emerges as an alternative, reducing the price that may emerge in tourists the curiosity for the visit and thus later the barrier of the wait for the few transportation can appear smaller to tourists. The adoption of this strategy, however, must consider prices that are valued to be high enough to provide profit to those who offer tourism and sufficiently low for acceptance by tourists to awaken the desire for experimentation.

Keywords: Coastal environment, Insular environment, Oceanic islands; islands of small dimensions, Hospitality.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-24-03

Publication date: December 31^st 2022