Responsible Tourism - ­Divergences Between the Principles of Sustainability and the Actions of the Tourism Sector in Brazil

Sustainability in tourism assumes the balance among the economic, environmental, cultural, and social dimensions that intervene in its activities to optimize its benefits, without any prejudice to society and the environment. In this sense, there is a worldwide movement to make the tourism sector agents aware, with the intention of broadening sustainable and practical actions. With this perspective, this study aimed to verify the current state of the activities performed by the tourism sector in Brazil regarding the determinations (criteria, principles and goals) developed by national and international institutions. Through descriptive research with a quantitative approach, stakeholders linked to the Brazilian tourism sector participated in this study. The results showed that in Brazil there is still a need for more involvement and cooperation among residents, tourists and tourism operators linked to the tourism sector, with a commitment to sustainably balance the economic, environmental, cultural and social dimensions of its activities. It was also found that the environmental dimension was portrayed as having the least compliance with sustainability, that is, the activities of the Brazilian tourism sector are the ones that are the most deficient and require the largest investment.