A historical perspective on the life cycle of a tourist activity: dolphin watching in Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha archipelago

Abstract

In Brazil, the whale watching is practiced with different species, such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. This activity facilitates the growth of the economic activities of communities in many regions of the country, and it may be a tool for awareness about the marine preservation and conservation. Moreover, the whale or dolphin watching also impacts native species. The Fernando de Noronha Archipelago (FN) is a worldwide watching tourism site due to the time of the development of activities and the ease to watch cetaceans, mainly the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris). The aim of this study was to characterize the dolphin watching in FN. Additionally, we will investigate the applicability of the "Tourism Area Life Cycle" (TALC) approach for a tourism activity, identifying the main events or stages that promoted significant changes throughout the history of the activity in the archipelago. We observed that both land based and boatbased (boat trips) are available in FN. The boat trips are more common and involve the triple of tourists than landbased watching. However, the last provides more informative and educational component. The history of dolphin watching tourism in FN was developed concomitantly with the tourism destination of the archipelago as a whole. Through TALC analysis, dolphin watching in FN had its development together with the destination development and, currently, both areas present stagnation stage indicators. In addition, the landbased watching, for being less impacting and more educative, has potential to increase the visitation.