Abstract
This study aims to point out what measures were adopted at the local level to face the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The challenge of the current context lies in the pressures from the trade-off between the reopening of economic activities of a municipality in which tourism is the only economic activity and the recommendations for isolation and social distancing, except essential services. Utilizing documentary and content analysis, this study enabled the authors to consider the locus defined in the case study as a municipality of atomized governance, prioritizing economic aspects to the detriment of socio-environmental and socio-cultural aspects in the constituent phases of the crisis management modus now conferred and (re)adapted. Moreover, sustainable planning that proposes and harmonizes the recovery of the local tourism industry with the precepts of sustainability advocated by the United Nations was absent, given the impacts caused by COVID-19 in the post-pandemic scenario.
TopIntroduction
Due to the global recession caused by the new Coronavirus (Covid-19), initially identified in China in December 2019 (Flaxman et al., 2020), the world is experiencing the worst economic crisis since World War II (World Bank, 2020). In the context of tourism, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) has stated that international tourism has dropped by 72% and could reach 75%, which represents a loss of more than 1 billion tourists, equivalent to US$ 1.1 trillion. It highlights an estimated drop in global GDP of more than US$ 2 trillion. In addition, unemployment may reach 100 to 120 million workers (UNWTO, 2020a). The UNWTO recognizes that low tourist confidence and countermeasures to the pandemic caused by Covid-19 made 2020 “the worst year ever recorded in the history of tourism” (UNWTO, 2020b: 1).
In countries considered to be inducers and promoters of staycations and international tourism, such impacts have caused devastating effects on tourist destinations, especially in municipalities where tourism is the only economic activity (Niestadt, 2020). Consequently, tourism governance must have crisis management aligned with public planning that proves sustainable, confronting the current pandemic and recovering from its effects in the post-pandemic scenario. This argument reiterates the need to stimulate public policies that engage social actors (public management, private sector, and local civil community) in convergence with the socio-economic, socio-cultural, socio-environmental, ethical, and political spheres.
Crisis management is understood, specifically in tourism, as the process of effectively managing public planning, which is inherent to tourism governance. This governance is fomented and managed by public managers and stakeholders, executing action plans before crisis of all sizes and magnitudes.
Social isolation measures, closure of non-essential activities, especially the tourist trade, cancellation and postponement of trips, suspension of events, and sanitary barriers have become a reality in the life of tourist destinations over much of the planet during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to the paralysis of the entire tourist industry.
However, on the one hand, there is the economic appeal for reopening and relaxing borders; and on the other hand, the health agencies' guidelines for maintaining social distancing and the suspension of non-essential economic activities. One of the examples of trade pressure to reopen economic activities in Brazil were the lawsuits filed by businesses in large cities demanding more flexibility (Diogo, 2020). Another example is the public outcries of business people trying to open their businesses against sanitary measures instated by the municipal and state authorities during the pandemic's peak in May 2020 (Sobreira, 2020). There were also protests by shop owners, business people, and tourism businesses (Mota, 2020). However, the WHO, the Brazilian Health Ministry, and other health departments throughout the country continued to recommend social distancing measures and closure of borders (for tourism or not) and non-essential activities (Aquino et al., 2020; Brasil, 2020d; Farias, 2020).
Moreover, few studies in the specialized literature empirically cover such a scenario (Emmendoerfer et al., 2021) and the measures adopted by tourist destinations to face epidemiological crises with crisis management and sustainable public planning during and after the pandemic.
In this sense, this study seeks to answer the following guiding question: what measures were adopted to cope with the pandemic caused by Covid-19 in an exclusive tourist economy, keeping in mind the conflict between the pressure to reopen economic activities early and social distancing? To answer this question, the central objective is to highlight the involvement of local tourism governance in the implementation of actions to address the epidemiological crisis, considering the suspension period of its main activities and how tourism development planning has occurred for the post-pandemic scenario.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Municipality: The municipalities in Brazil are federative entities with autonomy to govern their territory based on political, administrative, and financial dimensions, governed by a specific Organic Law. As for tourism, it is also the responsibility of the municipalities to promote and encourage it, aiming at social and economic development.
Core Governance: Is a type of governance that manifests itself from the centralization of a restricted core of actors who provide an opportunity to legitimize interests, finding in the form of participation, through the largest possible number of instances and public and private organizations, possibilities of institutionalizing their decision-making power, determining and deliberating actions aimed at local tourism.
Brazilian Policy of 65 Destination Inducers: Started in 2008, the state national policy of 65 Destination Inducers, through the regionalization of Brazilian tourism, created the Competitiveness Study, in which the destination seeks competitiveness by planning, measuring, monitoring actions and strengthening the management groups and, consequently, the tourism management. The inducement destinations must have basic and tourist infrastructure and qualified attractions, able to attract and/or distribute a significant number of tourists to the territory and boost the economy where they are located.
Inducer Destinations: All municipalities with tourism potential that induce and promote the practice and exercise of tourism through its natural, architectural, cultural attractions and celebrations constituted in public and/or private events.
COVID-19: According to the Ministry of Health in Brazil, Covid-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, or New Coronavirus, which exposes a clinical condition ranging from asymptomatic infections to severe respiratory conditions, above all, in some situations, leading to death.
Research Participant (RP): All voluntary actors who agreed to participate in the research through in-depth interviews. The research participants were named with the acronym RP (Research Participant), following the criteria established by the Ethics Committee, in accordance with the CNS Operational Standard No. 01/2013, item 3.3, “i”. The numbering that follows the initials of the RPs was performed through Microsoft Excel, by Visual Basic, in which the command was created to generate random numbers without repetition.
Leader of the Municipal Executive Power: All those political actors elected through a suffrage, by means of a democratic vote, who represent the local population that chose them to occupy a public administrator position in the municipality.
Tiradentes (MG): Founded in 1702, as a settlement, it was an important gold mining center during the colonial period. In 1718 it was conceived as a village and in 1860 was elevated to the category of city/municipality. In honor of the inconfidente and martyr to Brazil's Independence, José da Silva Xavier (known as 'Tiradentes'), the town was given the name Tiradentes in 1889, by state decree Nº 3. Even today, it is popularly called the 'Cradle of Brazilian Freedom'. Currently it has an estimated population of 8,072 inhabitants and the tourism industry is its exclusive economic sector.