Cooperação em rotas de turismo rural: cenário e experiências no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new perspectives to the tourism sector, especially rural tourism. In this context, rural tourism routes proved, through cooperation, to be efficient ways for regional development. The present study has a research question: What is the role of cooperation in rural tourism routes? The overall objective is to analyze the results of cooperation on rural tourist routes and their effects in the context of a pandemic. As specific objectives: to identify in the literature the elements that configure and explain the process of cooperation of rural tourist routes; verify if there are correlations between the variables that influence the cooperation process and the characteristics of the researched enterprises and, subsequently, identify the influences related to the variables of cooperation during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in tourist enterprises on the routes. The results showed how cooperation develops in rural tourism routes. Factors, elements and instruments necessary for its development were identified, suggesting that such items favor the emergence of synergies in destinations, stimulating their sustainable development and tourist experiences. It was identified that there are significant positive and negative correlations between the degree of trust and that during the COVID-19 pandemic cooperation worked not in a monetary way, but through moral support among route members.