The financialization of tourism and real estate production and the instrumentalization of nature in Brazil

• Grant number: 24/11026-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Lucia Zanin Shimbo
• Grantee: Maria Sylvia Baptista Serra
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/04684-6 - Unsustainable planetary financialization. Economic specialization, capital markets and environmental degradation in the production of space in France and Brazil (FinPlanet), AP.R

Abstract

This master's project seeks to characterise the financialisation of tourism and real estate production in Brazil, which, among other characteristics, is based on the instrumentalisation of nature as a strategy for capitalising activities and, consequently, the real estate and financial assets linked to this sector. The aim is therefore to investigate the production of Brazilian tourism and real estate projects linked to the capital market, via Real Estate Investment Funds (FIIs), property companies or listed companies. Specifically, it seeks to analyse the agents involved, the strategies for mobilising the environmental issue, as well as the socio-spatial configurations of their projects. The research process will use three fundamental methodological procedures, namely: i) documentary research will analyse publications and reports on tourism-real estate developments, tourism rules and legislation, and data from FIIs, property companies and listed companies; ii) the field research will include semi-structured interviews with capital market and real estate development agents and analysis of the urban and architectural design of the developments of two study objects (Brazil Hospitality Group and Hard Rock Hotels);iii) in database analysis, the repositories of institutions linked to the tourism, real estate and financial sectors will be mobilised (for example: Fungetur, Cadastur, B3, Siila and Clube FII). The results of the research will involve a mapping of tourism and real estate ventures linked to the capital market in Brazil and an in-depth characterisation of capitalisation strategies with regard to the mobilisation of environmental aspects, based on an analysis of the objects of study. These products will contribute to the debate on the advance of financialisation processes in tourism and the real estate market, linked to the mobilisation of the environmental dimension by these sectors.