Tourism with sustainability

This work is based on the understanding that tourists are looking for the simple and authentic aspects that characterise traditional communities. Society is discovering the environmental importance and strategic value of maintaining the rural landscape, and is treating rivers, fauna and flora as essential elements for human beings. This context has led to the revalorisation of the way of life and the emergence of new economic, social and environmental functions for rural areas, allowing communities new ways of ensuring their permanence in the countryside. The specific objective focused on infrastructure that could make tourist activities viable, researching activities and developing indicators in a participatory way to diagnose environmental, social and cultural aspects that could be tourist attractions. The locus of the research was the municipality of Novo Airao, located on the right bank of the Rio Negro, 115 kilometres from Manaus as the crow flies and 143 kilometres by river. It has a strong tradition of working with handicrafts, with the Novo Airao Craftsmen's Association (AANA) as a reference.