New Technologies and Heritage Tourism: Making Cultural Itineraries with GIS at São Cristóvão/SE - Brazil

Resumo

During the last decades, tourism became a strategy to socioeconomic development in many countries. In this period, some changes also affected tourists’ preferences and reasons, which generated a larger segmentation between touristic offer and demand. Thereby, the tourist practice becomes more complex in the use of space in relation to offer and demand components. This way, our aim is to highlight the relevance of using new technologies in tourism as tools that can aggregate information and subsidize the planning and management processes of the territory where the tourist activity will be deployed, in addition to provide the tourist with the possibility to have specific information about auto-guided itineraries in the city of São Cristóvão, where the São Francisco Square (World Heritage - UNESCO) is located. To accomplish this, we used bibliography research, collection of information, touristic inventory and the creation of cultural itineraries through Quantum GIS (QGIS) as methodological procedures to create alternatives to diversify the local touristic offering. Thus, we try to make a contribution to the territorial development of the destination, being studied by adopting spatial concepts in the decision-making process by the Public Administration and the private sector, and also for the new touristic products design. Furthermore, creating new cultural itineraries can raise awareness about the Cultural Heritage of São Cristóvão.