Uma Viagem Para Todos: Identifying and Analyzing the Determinants of Tourism Policy in Lula's Brazil

Abstract

For an industry responsible for 10 percent of global GDP, the little amount of research on tourism and, specifically, tourism public policy is surprising. This thesis seeks to spark a discussion regarding the determinants of tourism policy by identifying and examining the conditions behind the most active period of Brazilian tourism policy, following Luiz Inácio da Silva’s (Lula) presidential election in 2003. It analyzes past and present Brazilian tourism policies, and the political and economic conditions surrounding Lula’s presidential victory to identify the main conditions behind his unprecedented amount of support of the industry. Its findings are twofold. First, it argues that the unique set of social and economic pressures placed on Lula’s administration by the Workers’ Party’s (PT) traditional voter base and newly won-over centrist and right-leaning Brazilians, significantly limited his policy options. Second, it argues that, given this constraint, Lula’s background, political ideology, and unique awareness of tourism’s social and economic capabilities are what ultimately led him to invest so heavily in tourism policy. While it confirms some of the hypotheses made by existing literature, it also originally suggests that Lula’s awareness of tourism’s unique capabilities played a crucial role in bringing about the policy shift. These findings underscore tourism’s distinct ability to adapt under different political and physical environments and to provide a wide range of policy outcomes depending on its implementation and focus.