O turismo e as redes de suporte social para a pessoa idosa no município de Venâncio Aires/RS - Brasil.

Abstract

Studying the relationship between tourism and as social support networks for the elderly is important, as we have an increasingly active elderly public, with the conditions to travel and adhering to group travel, with family and friends, in addition to travel individually, to their daily lives. Tourism is a market segment that provides opportunities for contacts with cultures, peoples and experiences, since the participation of the actors involved in this research, both public and private bodies, as well as the elderly people interviewed, in order to investigate how they are working and how they are being offered the products and services to this specific public and what are the public tourism policies for the elderly of a municipal nature. The present study presents as its central theme researching how tourism in the city of Venâncio Aires is organized through its public and private institutions to receive the elderly and, in this context, also understand how they relate to social support networks. In this sense, the general objective of the research is: to analyze how social support networks among elderly people from tourist events promoted by private and public in the city of Venâncio Aires - RS. Regarding the methodology used in the research, the results obtained and the conclusion of the thesis took place through a qualitative and quantitative approach. From the point of view of its objectives, it is an exploratory and descriptive research. Regarding the technical procedures for data collection, the critical incident with elderly people who practice tourism in Venâncio Aires was used, carried out between October and November 2020, with 10 people, and the case study was carried out through a semi-structured interview script, with tourist actors from public and private bodies, and was also carried out between October and November 2020, with 8 cases. The quantitative, structured, descriptive research questionnaire was applied to 186 elderly people, carried out between November 2020 and January 2021, and the survey was carried out using a computational resource of Microsoft Excel software for data tabulation and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for statistical analysis, maintaining its spatial delimitation of research to the municipality of Venâncio Aires/RS. The results obtained indicate the existence of favorable elements regarding the worked variables, also, it presents negative elements in favor of tourism for the elderly. From the results obtained in the research, it is generally observed that it is necessary to work towards tourism activities for the elderly in the city, as it is necessary to improve the quality of services and products offered, offering access to tourist sites, infrastructure, accessibility and dissemination of tourist information. Some of the variables that stood out for their positive performance in the research were the importance of socializing with friends and acquaintances in tourism, happiness, joy and good vibes in activities.