AS POTENCIALIDADES TURÍSTICAS DO SERTÃO SEMIÁRIDO: ANÁLISE DO TURISMO DE AVENTURA NO MUNICÍPIO DE QUIXADÁ-CEARÁ

Abstract

The tourism in Ceará is widely disseminated by its coastal destinations. However, semi-arid areas have promising potential for the development of this activity and can be configured as new possibilities for tourist destinations, through market segmentation studies capable of identifying local potentialities and directing strategies for tourism development contextualized with the local reality. Located in the semi-arid region of Ceará, the city of Quixadá is part of the planning region of the Central Hinterland of Ceará and is established as a relevant destination for the practice of Adventure Tourism, especially with regard to the practice of free flight (paragliding and hang gliding). Adventure Tourism can be understood as a segment associated with the practice of recreational adventure activities and with no competitive purpose. The research has as its main objective to analyze the Adventure Tourism which is established in Quixadá, identifying the nuclei of development, the activities that are carried out, the potentialities and the limitations. The research has as methodological basis the precepts of Landscape Geoecology, systematized in four phases: Organization and Inventory; Analyze; Diagnosis and Prognosis. Due to its integrative perspective, it was considered that the Geoecology of Landscapes may have subsidies to achieve the objectives proposed in the research, considering the dynamic characteristic of this tourism. It was identified that the Adventure Tourism in the research area develops, mainly, in six centers scattered in that town. The main limitations pertaining to the development of this segment were also identified, as well as the elaboration of possible suggestions that might circumvent them.