“The Nature We All Want”—Influences of São Paulo Metropolis on Tourism Development in the Bragantina Region, São Paulo, Brazil

The metropolis of São Paulo comprises the largest urban conglomerate and the most important industrial park in the southern hemisphere and its urban expansion has taken place without any significant concern for its cultural, historical or natural patrimony and tourist potential, leading to a gradual homogenization and depersonalization of the urban area. The Bragantina region, located in the north of the São Paulo metropolis, is nowadays its last urban frontier. Due to difficult access, this region underwent a slow urbanization process that allowed the conservation of an historical and cultural patrimony dating back to the colonial period and of significant remnants of Atlantic forest, one of the tropical forests most threatened with extinction in the world. The doubling of the regional highways that took place in the last 15 years has brought profound changes to the Bragantina region. Nowadays this region is intensively used as a tourist destination for weekend homeowners, events and environmental tourism. Visitors come mainly to explore its natural and cultural aspects, that are sold by real-estate agents and tourism agents, mainly through the use of images in advertisements and folders, as a piece of “wild nature” still preserved on the borders of São Paulo. This approach creates a perspective, described as a simulacrum, a false reality, that is reflected in the ideas of nature held by different tourists and other social actors, but that doesn't express the regional reality. Because intensification of land use has not been accompanied by effective conservation, public policies or involvement of local communities in regional planning, the historical, cultural and environmental patrimony is suffering a range of impacts. In this study we analyse the problems generated by tourism and urbanization in the Bragantina region that have resulted from the expansion of the São Paulo metropolis and characterize ideas of nature that are expressed by different social actors, including tourists, that seem to relate to and to perceive the Bragantina region as an unspoiled and preserved natural area where “nature” can still be found, and where natural resources are saved from environmental degradation, in spite of the actual environmental and cultural changes.