Speleological Tourism in Amazonas State as a Guarantee of Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the Arenitic Caves of Presidente Figueiredo Municipality

Abstract

The visitation motivations of caves and tourist practices are motivated for several reasons, culminating in educational, adventure, contemplative, mystical and religious-oriented activities. The cave tourism has a market facet that strengthens gradually with the expansion of visitation, increasing opportunities for employment and generating incomes in the communities and the development of specific services for the sightseeing speleotourism. The present study aims to assess the potential in the Amazon State, accessing the speleological database from the National Centre of study, protection and management of Caves (CECAV) of the Chico Mendes Institute for biodiversity conservation (ICMBio). We studied six caves in the Presidente Figueiredo municipality (Amazonas State), taking the knowledge of the mapped caves and local citizens information to investigate the potential defined on the potential speleological database map. We concluded that the cave tourism is configured as a consolidated activity that develops the territory, generating incomes, citizenship and environmental preservation.

Keywords

• Ecotourism
• Cave Tourism
• Territorial Development
• Amazon State