ABSTRACT:
Environmental institutions responsible for overseeing protected areas in Brazil have invested in partnerships with the private initiative to support tourism services. The current work aims to present a conceptual reflection on public values, with an emphasis on accountability, which tend to directly influence the way partnerships for the development of tourism in protected areas are planned and implemented. The literature on public values related to partnerships was used as a key to the interpretation for the management of public use in protected areas, thus highlighting a concept commonly used by international literature, which bridges Tourism and Public Management perceptions. The article highlight that the debate on concessions should go beyond the dichotomy of public versus private and should be guided by the perspective of a partnership based on public values. Public values are, in a more general scope, tied to democratic and republican objectives and, specifically, related to the public policy at hand - in this case, matters of defending Public Heritage and Sustainability in Tourism. The article highlights some aspects for understanding the impact of partnerships for the development of tourism and meeting the objectives of protected areas.
KEY WORDS:
protected areas; tourism; partnerships