The Tourism practiced by the Ecological Pousada Aldeia Dos Lagos next to the Communities of São João, Santa Luzia do Sanabani and São Sebastião do Itapani in the municipality of Silves – Amazonas

Abstract

Economic growth and preservation of natural resources  have become a duty for the construc- tion of a sustainable society. Several seguiments appear and try to join these opposite sides. Tourism is one of them. Since the 90s it has been regarded one of the most practible alternatives for the implementa- tion of the sustainable development. The accomplishment of this study aims to verify whether the Aldeia dos Lagos lodge practices or not the sustainable tourism inside the communities involved in the project. The data of this study were obtained from September to December/2002 and are presented in this job. As to the methodological procedures, questionnaires were applied in three of the five communities in order to know about the residents’ perception in relation to the job developed by the lodge Aldeia dos Lagos. The results, however, have proved that the tourist activities practiced by Aldeia dos Lagos Lodge cannot be regarded a sustainable practice. Though, its activities differ from the ones practiced by most of the lodges in the State in that Aldeia dos Lagos offers its visitors a differentiated tourism. Therefore, tourism has been discussed throughout the Brazilian Territory. In the state of the Amazon, sustainable tourism seems to be far from being implemented although there are tourist activities based on the principles of sustainability.