Rural Extension Service and Tourism: are there crossing paths?

Abstract

The contemporary rural extension service comes across a rural area transformed into new ruralities, including tourism, redirecting the work of their technicians preparing them for new extension practices. In general, public involvement in the context of extension for rural tourism is still limited and it varies among states in Brazil. This article presents some aspects arising from a descriptive survey conducted in 2013 with the technical agents of the extension in São Paulo State, Brazil, about their perception of rural tourism and their concern with sustainability applied to touristic activities. It is essential to invest in training for these technicians, particularly in differentiated capabilities that promote critical analysis to tourism. Extension acquires important social role as mediators of development since it is provided by endogenous and participatory processes, dealing with the relations and conflicts among culture, rural community, environment, heritage and tourism.