ENVIRONMENTAL EMPHASIS IN UNDERGRADUATE COURSES IN TOURISM IN BRAZIL

Abstract

Undergraduate courses in Tourism in Brazil were created first created in the nineteen seventies, in a scenario of a political and marketing movement in the area of tourism. Over time, these courses adapted to the emerging needs of the market through the specialization of their curricula, creating emphasis on special themes. In this context, the general objective of the research was to analyze Bachelor degree courses in Tourism that give emphasis to the environment and related areas, in order to identify common and distinguishing features in their objectives, curricula, course contents and laboratories. The survey was divided into two stages. In the exploratory phase, an overview was identified of the tourism courses with environmental emphasis. In the subsequent, descriptive phase, a case study was carried out on three of these courses. The results show that the courses analyzed give direct environmental emphasis in their objectives, dedicating between 15.65% and 18.91% of the total class hours of their curricula to this theme. In the conclusions, the need is underscored to expand the curricular content, in order to analyze the biotic and abiotic environmental variables for tourism purposes, in order to add or expand the conceptual, technological and scientific differential of these courses. Keywords: Higher Education; Tourism and Environment; Sustainable Tourism.