Práticas Sustentáveis no Turismo em empresas de alimentação fora do lar : Um estudo em destinos turísticos do Litoral Sul Potiguar

Abstract

The present study is the result of an extension project selected by the announcement no. 02/2018-PROEX / IFRN-NEEPs. Understanding the importance of sustainability in tourism, this work had the general objective of identifying whether sustainable practices are present in the food companies outside the home selected for the research. To obtain the theoretical basis, studies on sustainability, tourism and sustainable development and on gastronomy as a tourist attraction and the importance of practices in this context were first sought. Then, in its methodological procedures, this study is characterized by being descriptive-exploratory, and as the approach has a qualitative nature, where it was developed from a data collection using an interview form and a Checklist as research instruments, the latter, created exclusively for the purposes of this study, applied to 8 companies located in 3 tourist destinations on the South Coast of Potiguar, namely, Tibau do Sul, Canguaretama and Baía Formosa. To analyze the data, the content analysis technique was applied. Based on the results of the interviews, it was possible to outline the profile of the companies, and from the Checklist, to understand whether the entrepreneurs had knowledge on the topic and to identify the sustainable practices they already carried out. Therefore, a prognosis was built in order to suggest improvements and present possible solutions within the parameters of social, economic and environmental sustainability for each of the participating establishments. Therefore, it is hoped that this work can serve as a parameter for new studies in the area especially of sustainability aimed at enterprises in the food sector outside the home, which still needs more in-depth research.