Caminho dos Vales e das Águas: the formation of a tourist arrangement on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul.

Abstract

This paper aimed to understand the fundamental elements of a tourism cluster formation as result of a tourism route creation called Caminho dos Vales e das Águas, on the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul. For this, we used the concepts of network and field. The tourism sector was considered the social field and Caminho dos Vales e das Águas, a new organization, which may change the position of actors in the process of socioeconomic disputes in territory. Methodologically, the analysis of statistical publications was used, followed by document analysis of the group meetings, understanding of the evolution of public policies in the sector, and semi-structured interviews. As result, it was possible to understand who were the agents involved, what were their positions in the field and what internal and external incentives they had for the cluster formation.