The Portuguese Culture in Rio Pardo, Rio Grande do Sul: a reference for building the city's touristic image

Abstract

The present article has as its main objective to rescue and register Portuguese heritage, property, history and culture in Rio Pardo - RS, identifying them as reference for the construction of the city’s touristic image. To qualify the Receptive Tourism, this study proposes the creation of workshops for children up to 12 years, aiming to provide information on tourism, environmental and touristic education, preservation and recycling helping them to create a touristic awareness. In these workshops, children learn the confection of ecobags made from recycled PET bottles and packaging for the traditional Sonhos de Rio Pardo made of recycled cardboard, with the label of the Regional Center of Culture. The image of this important architectural heritage of Rio Pardo was chosen in research done with residents, as the highest reference of the city. This way, tourists, taking the ecobags and the traditional "sonhos" as leaving, will also take a concrete visual image of the Regional Center for Culture, in the form of Rio Pardo’s touristic label, combining the awareness of heritage preservation and the education for Tourism, with the recycling of materials. The ecological awareness and sustainability will be inserted in the correct hosting and receptivity, through the construction of the touristic image.