Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Strategic Management for Tourism, Hospitality in Western Amazon

Theoretical And Conceptual Review

The definition of tourism presented by Esteves (2015) refers to phenomena and relations emerging from the interaction between tourists and service providers, government, communities, universities and organizations in the process of attracting, transporting, receiving and managing tourists. The term ‘inbound tourism’ presented in Freire (2015) is defined as a business process where practices connected with the permanent presence of people going to/at a destination are managed. It consists in providing services and products of interest, desire and necessity for visitors and a set of organizational and logistical elements arranged for receiving them, which involves the complexity of human reception activities supported by a tangible infrastructure where tourists meet residents. To Pezini et al (2014), in Brazil it is an alternative to other kinds of social, economic, cultural and political development once its effectiveness depends on an urban infrastructure (transportation, security, law), community awareness, and the manually-skilled labor and hospitality of the place where tourists are received.

The term ‘hospitality’ is related to the act of receiving and giving shelter to a traveler. For Pimentel (2012), it includes all the receptive touristic-social machinery held by agencies, sectors, companies or individuals who have contact with visitors and offer structures and services. The effectiveness of the hospitality encourages social participation, involvement and the sharing of experiences between cultures, customs, values and people; it is a socio-cultural and professional phenomenon that needs investment and strategy to be effective.