Tourism development: sustainable or sustained? Intercultural reflections on the case of Praia do Forte-Bahia, Brazil

This article adopts qualitative exploratory research, undertaken by means of a single-case study on Praia do Forte, a tourism destination located on the Brazilian coast. Use was made of secondary data and in-depth interviews with local residents, to answer the research question of how this destination could follow a path of tourism development in a way that differentiates it from similar ones; and, as secondary objective if the degree of current development can still be seen as sustainable. Based on a systematic perspective of tourism, we seek to extend the vision of development so as to include sociocultural and environmental dimensions of sustainability based on Sachs' (1986) model. The results indicate that three factors seem to answer the question.