Turismo cultural e a patrimonialização do polígono de tombamento do Centro Histórico de Porto Nacional-TO

Abstract

Placed close to 60 km from the state district, Palmas-TO, there is Porto Nacional, one of the Tocantins`state cities well known for its historical, artistic, cultural and religious value to the old times known as “norte goiano”, which is the north region for those who lived in the south, this last one is now called Goiás state. As we can observe through the study of some authors dedicated to several subjects on Porto Nacional, like Education, Historical heritage and History, Porto Nacional city genesis was set by three start points: the Dominicans arrival, the dawn of three newspapers and lastly the arrival of a physician to the city. There are many reasons why it is one of the most representative cities in the state, one of them is the strong tendency to religion, most of all the catholic one. Another important aspect was its landmarking by the historical heritage, which occurred in 2008. It is also needed to mention that it was the second city to be listed as historical heritage on the state and also the first in its territory. It carries an eventful hindsight of the historical heritage evolution process whereas it includes the Historical Heritage Chart of Athenas (1931), Venice Chart (1964), Convention for World Cultural and Natural Historical Heritage (1972) and the Amsterdan Declaration (1975). These charts were weighty to the historical heritage landmarks consolidation in our times. This study suggests to discuss and reflect on the actions that give north to the city cultural tourism. The first step of this study consisted in the application of a poll to the tourists that visited the city`s church and museum during the last 2013 July and December, as well as this part points out the historical heritage process of Porto Nacional`s historical center according to the arguments and interviews done upon the city dwellers. Some semi-structured polls were applied on the tourists as first step of this research. One of the standard points of this work is to measure cultural tourism importance to the city tourism as a whole. The second step of this work is to verify the perception of the nearby inhabitants of the city’s historical center on the historical heritage process based on formal documents as the Historical Center Heritage Landmarking Minute and the Historical Heritage Landmarking Dossier. This study drifts a reflection upon the actual context of the city. After all, this study contains two vision, the dweller and the tourist one, in order to answer if the city historical heritage listing replies to their expectations. Having in mind the fact that the city is considered the cultural birthplace of the state, and also based on some issues enlightened by the poll, a reflection arises: the existence of cultural tourism in Porto Nacional and the participation of its dwellers to the historical center landmarking.