Public policies on adventure leisure: between sports and tourism, promotion and risk control

Author(s)

Marília Martins Bandeira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Educação Física
• Defense date: 2016-04-15

Examining board members

Silvia Cristina Franco Amaral; Olívia Cristina Ferreira Ribeiro; Giuliano Gomes de Assis Pimentel; Ricardo Ricci Uvinha; Jocimar Daolio

• Advisor: Silvia Cristina Franco Amaral

Abstract

Adventure recreational practices and sporting events, related to exposure to natural environments and facing of risks, have achieved great increase in the number of participants in the millennium turn, what created new demands to public power. In Brazil, the proposition of regulatory laws and the partnership of the Ministry of Tourism with the Association of Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism Companies (ABETA) for the implementation of a national program called Aventura Segura (Safe Adventure) led to sport organizations requesting the creation of an Adventure Sports Commission (CEAV) inside the Ministry of Sport. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate what are the concerns and interests in conflict within the elaboration of public policies for adventure activities. To achieve it, the triangulation of the techniques of documentary analysis, open interviews and direct observation was used. Government documents, official publications and reactions to them in digital specialized media, involved social agents¿ testimonies and records on two events in field diary were analyzed. Data analysis was descriptive, interpretive, critical, and dialectic, confronting official decisions with communities of practice reactions, not only their convergences and homogeneities, but the differences and changes that make this social phenomenon. An overseas research internship in New Zealand also allowed investigating the case of the world capital for adventure activities. The results show that, in Brazil, the motivation of parliamentarians proposing laws for the regulation of the field of sports and adventure tourism was to ensure safety in adventure services, pressured by the relatives of victims of fatal accidents. This process brought a dispute between sport and tourism entities regarding the right to regulate and commercially exploit the field. Conflict that took more space on the political agenda than the accidents question, while leisure practices lost space in the Ministry of Sport, which prioritized conventional high performance sports, as hosting the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. In New Zealand, fatal accidents also triggered public policies. Although, recreation and outdoor education entities are the ones that dispute with tourism companies the terms and funds for the regulation of the field. Their federal agency of sports administration, Sport New Zealand, also prioritizes conventional high performance sport, although it has more expressive and cross-sectoral policies on outdoor recreation. We conclude that, in Brazil, promoting policies on adventure practices are mainly focused on the tourism sector and its economic potential as a niche market. Encouraging recreational and sporting dimension of the phenomenon is scarce and the intention to democratize access and enhance its educational features is restricted (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/04323-9 - Public policies for leisure activities in the natural environment: between promotion and risk control
• Grantee: Marília Martins Bandeira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate