Domestic and international demand for the tourism product Ouro Preto and its temporal and spatial limits temporales y espaciales

Abstract

This work explores the level of attractiveness of tourism centers, based on the concept of “range of an asset or service”, defined in Walter Christaller’s Central Place Theory. The town of Ouro Preto forms the object of this study, which analyzes its domestic and international tourism flows, based on descriptive statistics and choroplethic mapping. The results reveal the strong seasonality of tourism demand, with large numbers of visitors arriving during the school vacation months. However, international and domestic tourists present differing behavior throughout the year. Cartography identifies the outer limits of the range of the tourism product of Ouro Preto, revealing the strong control exerted by distance on the domestic tourism flow. Meanwhile, the international demand is restricted to the European and American continents. Key words: Tourism Product, Ouro Preto, Tourism Geography.