structural change of course. In our view, it was a procedural change and not a pragmatical one which instilled
new postures in public and private managers of Brazilian tourism, once it led them to think of tourism as a
strategic sector which demands professional management and recognition of the need or involvement from
other social agents, particularly the population of touristic destinations (Fratucci, 2006).
One of the difficulties in the process of tourism management municipalisation was related to its scale of
acting. PNMT imposed a municipal scale for its actions, considering that political/administrative limits of
Brazilian cities would be a more adequate spatial cutting for the definition and implantation of the sector
development policies. During the process, this scale of acting proved itself to be wrong, once tourism, both
from the point of view of social/spatial phenomena and economic activity is not restricted to city frontiers.
The PNMT implantation process encouraged city managers to perceive they would have more chances of
success if they worked along with their neighbor cities. Because of this, the first movements, targeted to
establish councils and regional tourism consortiums started to appear, as in the cases of Serra Gaúcha cities
(Rio Grande do Sul) and the region of Agulhas Negras (Rio de Janeiro); these movements, initially spontaneous,
were absorbed by the following government through the PRT.