MEMORABLE TOURISM EXPERIENCES IN RURAL ENVIRONMENTS: ACTION RESEARCH WITH ENTREPRENEURS FROM ROTA DO QUEIJO - TERROIR VERTENTES, MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL

Abstract:

Memorable tourism experiences have become progressively relevant to the context of rural tourism. To meet the expectations of tourists, producers and local managers must know the characteristics of memorable experiences to structure tourist products that tourists remember positively, influencing their attitudes and behaviors during and after their trip. This paper aims to investigate the process of developing techniques and knowledge to create memorable tourism experiences with family farmers. A qualitative study was carried out using the action research method, with 17 cheese marketers from 9 municipalities in the Campo das Vertentes region in Minas Gerais. The methodological strategies used were remote workshops, questionnaires to create experiences via Google Forms, field visits and notes in the researchers’ electronic diary. The remote workshops were divided into five stages and resulted in 12 experiences. We found that with the intervention of the workshops, family farmers were able to develop a plan with the researchers to offer memorable tourist experiences, considering aspects of identification, characterization, and commercialization of products. The main result of this research was the construction of knowledge with family farmers to promote autonomy to offer tourist experiences with innovation, technical quality, and hospitality. The 12 experiences created demonstrate that rural producers could associate the knowledge systematized in the workshops with their local realities and natural and cultural resources.

Keywords:
rural tourism; memorable tourism experiences; action research; tourist itinerary; Minas Gerais