Geospatial analysis of tourism supply and flows in northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Tourism has been established as a significant activity worldwide, especially in the economic aspect. As a multifaceted phenomenon, including its spatial component, the systemic perspective allows a fragmented or integrated study of its different parts. The geographic space encompasses fixed elements and tourist flows, which are dynamic according to the constitution of the space. In Northeastern Brazil, tourism is one of the activities that considerably move the economy and promote the consumption of places with the support of infrastructure and services. However, it is still a sector concentrated in the largest cities of the region, contributing to reinforcing intra-regional inequalities. Therefore, it is opportune to use geospatial analysis techniques to study tourism in order to identify and discuss the spatial distribution of tourism supply and possible tourist flows on two geographic scales: in Northeastern Brazil (NEB) and in the Immediate Geographic Region of Princesa Isabel (RGIPI). For this purpose, QGIS with R language was used to treat geographic, population, per capita income, and tourist businesses data and to calculate the spatial indices of autocorrelation and Moran’s I contiguity on global and local scales, respectively. The outcomes revealed the spatial independence of tourist supply in the NEB, which is also seen on a local scale in the RGIPI. The analysis also revealed that the highest probabilities of tourist flow occur between the most populous, higher income, and more developed capitals. Therefore, geoprocessing plays a key role in the study of tourism as it materializes in geographical space and allows highlighting areas for tourism expansion in the interior of the NEB.