Journal of Research in Hospitality, Tourism and Culture (ISSN: 2251-0028) Vol. 2(1) pp. 13-23, January, 2014
DOI: http:/dx.doi.org/10.14303/jrhtc.2013.113
Available online @http://www.interesjournals.org/JRHTC
Copyright ©2014 International Research Journals
Yára Lúcia Mazziotti Bulgacov, Universidade Positivo (UP). Address: Rua Pedro Viriato Parigot de Souza, 5300. Campo
Comprido, Curitiba/PR, Brazil. E-mail: ybulgacov@gmail.com.
Sieglinde Kindl da Cunha, Universidade Positivo (UP). Address: Rua Pedro Viriato Parigot de Souza, 5300. Campo
Comprido, Curitiba/PR, Brazil. E-mail: skcunha21@gmail.com.
Fabíola Bevervanço Zdepski, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUC/PR). Address: Rua Imaculada
Conceição, 1155, Bairro Prado Velho, CEP: 80215-901, Curitiba/PR, Brazil. E-mail: fabiolabz@gmail.com.
Vanessa de Oliveira Menezes, Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste (UNICENTRO). Address: PR 153, s/n. Irati/PR,
Brazil. E-mail: vanessamenezes@hotmail.com
*Corresponding authors e-mail: vanessamenezes@hotmail.com
Abstract
This paper aims to reveal, from the standpoint of the social actors, how they see the trajectory of tourism activity as a service practice in Castrolanda Colony – Parana, innovating from the exploitation of its historical and cultural aspects. The methodology proposed by Aguiar and Ozella (2009, 2013) is used to provide conditions for the actors’ reflections on the possibilities of introducing expansive manufacturing practices, discussing the Theory of Activity with the Innovation Theory so as to allow, data analysis through the identification of Meaning Core. The cores suggested that tourism is recognized by the respondents as an economic activity relevant to Castrolanda and therefore also as a source of business opportunities and labor, of supplementary income and thus as a way of adding market value to the Colony as a whole. The empirical approach suggested a potential for complementarily between an expansive practice and interpretative approaches, taking the divergent approach to innovation highlighted by Hjalager (2010). The initiative for undertaking the present work arose from an interest in this study approach, but also from a deficiency in the scientific research that addressed the implementation of innovation in tourism, in particular studies focused on innovation from cultural and historical perspectives.
Keywords: Meaning cores, culture, innovation in tourism, communities of practice, Castrolanda, touristic destiny.
INTRODUCTION
Learning transcends the individual and becomes part of a collective activity, marked by its history; it is subject to contradictions which lead to the reproduction of certain practices or even changes because it is always mediated by cultural artifacts (Engeström, 2001). Thus, it can be seen as the starting point for innovation and can be acquired and applied by different people in different fields. Based on this assumption, the present study aims to reveal, from the standpoint of social actors, the way that they view the trajectory of tourism as a practice of service, using Castrolanda, a colony in the South-Central region of Paraná State – Brazil – as a case study.
Castrolanda is located about 6 kilometers from Castro and 156 kilometers from Curitiba. Castrolanda is a
Colony founded by Dutch immigrants who arrived in
Brazil in the 1950s. The immigrants concentrated on agriculture and livestock for many years. The formation of their Cooperative and the partial isolation of the site, due to the distance from the center of Castro, attracted residents, who retained elements of the Dutch culture which nowadays appeals to visitors.
With the increasing demand from tourists, the local community came together to form a group dedicated to tourism, developing practices to promote it; soon local

14 J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult. entrepreneurs began to invest in lodging and gastronomic spaces. In this way, it is helpful to grasp the potential for tourism in Castrolanda so as to understand how the actors involved with tourism in this community see the innovative practices geared to tourism which developed in the locality. Thus, this paper aims to reveal, from the standpoint of the social actors, how they see the trajectory of tourism activity as a service practice in
Castrolanda Colony – Parana, innovating from the exploitation of its historical and cultural aspects. The methodology proposed by Aguiar and Ozella (2009,
2013) is used to provide conditions for the actors’ reflections on the possibilities of introducing expansive manufacturing practices, discussing the Theory of Activity with the Innovation Theory so as to allow, data analysis through the identification of Meaning Cores.
The initiative for undertaking this work arose from an interest in this study approach, but also from my sense of the deficiency in scientific research addressing the study of innovation in tourism, in particular, studies addressing innovation from cultural and historical perspectives.
Much of the research related to innovation in tourism analyzes it only as an economic phenomenon and explores tourism only the bias of technological change.
This paper, however, discusses the impact of the economic vision of innovation in tourism on the preservation of a culture and local characteristics. It also presents a new vision whereby the activity can focus on the significance of innovation for its actors, exploring culture as the fundamental element that allows a phenomenon to happen. Therefore, this work is academically relevant, because it broadens the scope of
Innovation Theory, mainly in addressing the tourism sector, one of the most lucrative economic activities in the world, and contributes to the dialogue between two theories: Innovation Theory and Activity Theory.
This article is divided into five sections, each dealing with a different topic. The first introduces readers to the subject under scrutiny, while the second presents the case study: Castrolanda’s Colony. The third brings in the theoretical work, in which the subjects are presented as the Expansive Theory of Learning, Innovation from the
Socio-Historical Perspective, Communities of Practice –
Learning COPs. The fourth describes the approach used, highlighting the methodology proposed by Aguiar and
Ozella (2009, 2013) and the seizure of the senses through analysis of the Core of Meaning. It then describes and analyzes the results obtained through interviews with professionals who develop activities related to tourism in the Colony. The last section closes the research and the dialogue between the theories presented.
Castrolanda
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Campos
Gerais region was colonized with the establishment and formation of “corrals” on allotments, in which the
Portuguese Crown granted large tracts of land to French,
Belgian, German, Dutch families and others wishing to settle. The first such application was made by Pedro de
Almeida Taques on March 19, 1704 (Wachowicz, 1968).
The memory of past difficulties in Europe at the end of the Second World War led many more Europeans to migrate to other countries. Territory in Brazil, in particular, was chosen as cede land and those allowed to settle their brought their own agricultural machinery and dairy cattle, which bore technological improvements beyond the prevailing level.
Mr. J.S. Biesheuvel came to Brazil in 1949, as a representative of Christian Center Emigration, in order to investigate the possibilities of immigration. Although the idea of emigration to Canada was most popular among
Dutch farmers, Brazil presented a more favorable prospect since it allowed capital to be brought in and gave migrants the opportunity to immediately establish individual settlements (Balhama and Machado, 1963).
On November 30 th
, 1951 the first families of Dutch immigrants arrived in Castro. They settled in Castrolanda, occupying 5,000 acres of land and started to produce milk and cultivate the land, mostly planting pasture for cattle, turnips and sweet potatoes (Rickli, 2003).
Castrolanda is located about 6-7 kilometers from the town of Castro and is 170 km away from Curitiba.
The Dutch faced many difficulties in establishing themselves in Brazil, such as the loss of livestock through disease, alcoholism, the difficulty of adapting to the
Brazilian climate, and language.
Until 1970, dairy cattle were the basis of the Dutch labor, and subsequently it expanded into producing maize and soybeans. Today, the dominant economic activity is agriculture, organized around the Castrolanda
Cooperative, with which almost all the inhabitants of the
Colony are connected, whether as cooperative producers or employees on the cooperative farms and ranches associated with it (Rickli, 2003).
Milk production from the foundation of Castrolanda has been the basis of its economy. Dairy products were industrialized in the Colony, however, as production. In
1955 Castrolanda and Carambeí decided to build the
Central Cooperative Dairy Paraná Ltda together. Two years later, a large modern factory in Carambeí was inaugurated, where milk is pasteurized and yoghurt, butter, cheese and other products made (Rickli, 2003).
The Colony consists of a central core containing the church, the school, the club, its facilities as regards the cooperative, the factory where milk is cooled and bottled, a Dutch factory making crackers, a workshop, a bank and a growing number of homes. Around it are scattered properties, from which access roads lead to the districts of Cologne: Zwartemeer Island, Capão Alto and
Maracanã.
The Dutch immigrants sought to organize themselves

and acted through social cooperation; they set out norms for the cooperative joint use of its assets by members.
The Dutch government sent livestock, machinery and other necessary materials. The cooperative contributes to the development of agricultural activities through its feed plant and its facilities for receiving and drying of grain in silos.
Because tourism in the Colonies is considered a great development opportunity, the National Cooperative
Learning body (SESCOOP) went to look at tourism as a way of increasing farmers’ incomes, to reduce the exodus to the cities, aggregate the value of property and profit from the hand labor of the members of the farmer’s family
(Mielke, 2010).
The Dutch on Castrolanda preserve their customs and traditions through their architecture, folk groups, crafts and cuisine. Focusing on cultural tourism, the main attractions to be found in the Colony are: the Immigrant
House Museum, a space which is a perfect replica of a windmill, opened in the early 1990s to show something of the history of the first immigrants to the region; the Dutch
Immigration Memorial, installed in a typical Dutch windmill built in 2001, which also shows the location history of the early immigrants and the formation of the
Colony; and Artelanda, a local craft store where typical products are offered for sale.
Conceptual framework
Studying human behavior from the perspective of activity theory gives an understanding of the way in which particular practice is established. From this perspective, work is seen as any activity performed by humanity throughout its existence and thus not limited to the practice of specific professions. Vigotski breaks with the behaviorist view of man, conditioned by stimulus and response. For him, consciousness comes from the relationship between man and the environment, as a mediated relationship. The constitution of man in the midst of action is thus possible; this action becomes cultural thereby and both it and man develop (biologically, cognitively and socially). Thus, the development of consciousness and identity is a result of acquiring knowledge which signals the transformation of the individual.
For Clot (2006, p. 115), activity is seen as a living unit, which undergoes metamorphosis over time. “The relationship ‘creative’ with the subject object thus offers an opportunity to renew the relationship with this other object that is also yours.” According to Leontiev (1978), awareness and action are inseparable, in particular in establishing relations between meaning and sense, creating objective relations in the social practice of mankind and representing the ways in which men assimilate widespread human experience. Human development is then the result of work, which can be
Bulgacov et al. 15 understood as an activity which is embodied in the product, not merely to produce tools and symbols, but also to produce culture.
For Vigotski (1998), there is a direct relationship between man and the world, but a complex and mediated relationship, made possible by using two types of mediator: tools and signs. Mediation is then the process by which the action of the subject on the object is mediated by a particular element, and this element as mediator enables the object to be transformed. In this sense, there is a mediated relationship between humans and the environment, where the subject is the agent whose behavior is to be analyzed; the artifacts which mediate are objects, materials or ideals and can be used by the subject to achieve its result, and the object refers to the crude material upon which the subject will act, mediated by the tools in continuous interaction with others.
Vigotski is interested to the specifically human capacity to generate significant cultural products, which have value in everyday life. Thus, in considering the meaning that can be created by the development of socially significant products, a historical determination can also be associated with such production, because production allows the development of man from his accomplishments, the product of his imagination and creativity.
The study of human behavior from the perspective of activity theory provides insight into the establishment and experience of a particular practice, which would be a cultural action. Activity theory can provide an analytical model of social practice and innovative practice.
The theory of innovation, which is combined with activity theory in the present paper, places innovation as a key element of development and capitalist competition.
Therefore, our objective in this paper is to make innovation theory approximate to the theory of activity, looking at innovation as a process of socio-historical construction (Leontiev, 1978, Vigotski, 1998).
Innovation is initially defined by Schumpeter (1988) as a set of evolving new functions capable of altering the means of production which enable new forms of work organization to be created and produce new goods, allowing different markets to open through creating new uses and forms of consumption.
Stoner and Freeman (1999) argue that innovation is a creative solution applied to problems and opportunities identified by the company. The authors contend that while creativity implies the generation of a completely new idea, innovation refers to the application of this idea.
For these authors, the concepts of creativity and innovation are inextricably linked, although differentiated.
Innovation is created from the concept of creativity and is understood as a process of generating change and introducing new elements in a social context. Therefore, managers must seek ways to manage creativity so they can get better results as regards innovation.

16 J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult.
For Powell and Gianella (2009), invention is the collective sharing of information on the design and development of new technologies; it derives from the resurgence of effort by creating a network of breeders and is distributed throughout various organizations including remote ones.
Collective invention allows access to more diverse sources of knowledge which, over time, can become institutionalized in the form of rules or agreements, formalizing the process of disseminating information so that this knowledge sharing leads to the establishment of a small community practice among the organizations concerned.
The study of innovation from a socio-historical perspective requires attention to what people think, what they value, how they behave, and how the interrelationships among actors in the process are put forward, i.e., social facts (Cavalli, 2007). In this context, it is essential to map the behavior of the social actors in the innovation process, because many institutions fail to promote social change adequately, paying too little attention to the symbolic dimension of the process.
This approach allows for a separate analysis of creativity. Hence, innovation includes creativity only as part of the process of producing novelty and is not focused in product value. In this case, Vigotski’s works refer to entities such as creativity, imagination and fantasy which coexist in creative activity and can cause individuals to organize and reorganize their psychological processes. Thus, for Vigotski, novelty is the only criterion necessary for something to be creative, because the organization depends more on the thinking of the individual, the product of his creative activity, than on the economic value, suitability or usefulness of the thing created.
To Hellström (2004), the process of innovation as social action can be understood as the idealization of a concept or mental object, a desired goal. A physical action is required to create and publicize a product of some kind in some unit of adoption. So, innovation is not just the design of a new idea, nor the invention of a new device, nor the development of a new market, but the seamless combination of all these things in a set.
Innovation should be implied to the intentional projection of a vision and action involved to fulfill it, because the fact that an organization adopted innovation once before does not mean that it will always display the same behavior.
Innovation should be seen as both an artifact or process that is new or that drives adoption as a conceptual and physical activity and also as something which is so symbolically, socially, historically and culturally situated that it is a problem and its solution therefore involves something which is new; hence it is therefore wholly future oriented. This dual existence serves to distinguish innovation from a simple product to something that can change and direct goals (Hellström,
2004).
In this context it should be emphasized that before innovation can be made, knowledge is required, which can be obtained using instruments to promote development and learning. One way to gain knowledge is through communities of practice, which, according to
Wegner, McDermont and Snyder (2002, cited in Leal
&Baêta, 2006, p. 24), “[...] are groups of people who share a particular concern, a set of problems or are enthusiastic about a particular subject and thus deepen their knowledge and experiences in the field through interaction.”
Brown and Duguid (1991, p. 40) claim that working, learning and innovation are part of human activity and are interrelated, even if they have different definitions and perspectives. For these writers, the concept of “learning while working” is what best represents learning through practice. Furthermore, the authors view learning as a bridge connecting instances of innovation.
Wenger (2006, n/p), for his part, defines
“communities of practice” as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn, and try to make them even better as they interact regularly.” According to this author, in work, some preconditions are necessary, such as: theme – a specific interest; community – members who build the necessary relationships, and practice – since, through daily activity, the community develops a repertoire of collective resources, which can be expressed through experiences, stories, tools, and other ways of addressing recurrent problems. In addition to these preconditions, Leal and
Baêta (2006) emphasize that there must be mutual trust between members, leadership and support in an organization, and the availability of technologies.
Thus, Brown and Duguid (1991), Wenger (2006), like
Leal and Baêta (2006), highlight the Communities
Practice – COPs – as tools which can boost the generation of new knowledge and innovation support.
They have often been used in constructing studies of knowledge management and learning theory and the creation of knowledge occurs in them when people participate in solving a problem and exchange the knowledge needed to do so (Leal &Baêta, 2006).
As discussed above, innovation is inseparable from learning. To highlight this statement, Lundvall (1992) explains that innovation is part of a learning process. It is the acquisition of more knowledge than is comprised in the technical characteristics of production and innovation or is the key to solving problems. The processes of learning and knowledge creation emerge as central issues in the capacity to innovate.
Now, with regard to the issue of learning, Duarte, Jr.
(1988) points out that the human species learns differently from others, because it has consciousness.
Thus, as the animal tries to adapt to its environment and reacts to changes, men adapt and change their environment according to their needs, sometimes through technology or through other physical changes, but also

through the words and the symbols created by humans to understand the world. People “[...] look more and more to give a meaning to the facts that they find here, being born and dying, building. The history of man is the history of the sense that he tries to print in the universe” (Duarte,
Jr., 1988, p. 26).
In this context, Duarte, Jr. defines meaning as a collective construction that uses symbols to make sense of things. Human experiences become meaningful only after they have been lived through and reflection on them takes place through the emotions and sensations. This whole process is not static but harmonic (Duarte Jr.,
1988). With respect to this statement, the author also notes the complement, that “New meanings can only be incorporated into the cognitive structure of the individual and if they constitute symbolizations of already lived experiences” (p. 32). However, it is noteworthy that this last sentence is not supported by all academic researchers.
Man does not live alone: he lives in the community and is a social being, so human values arises from these groups and are passed on through language. Duarte, Jr.
(1988, p. 37) writing of the importance to man of language, states that “[...] values (and language itself) are born of practical exigencies of survival.” Language helps to guide human action, from the interpretation of reality onwards. According to the author, this interpretation is made by simple and symmetrical shapes, for example, a constellation, a form adopted by man to understand the planetary system.
Highlighting the issue of language, the author states that “Individuals of the same social group have basically the same structure of values, data over the language used by them” (p. 41). Inside the tongue are the ways in which society views the world. That is, on the one hand language is a tool for the construction of the world, but on the other it also shapes our thoughts, feelings and actions. Only from the moment that we give names to things can we learn about them. The author also highlights the words that control people’s thoughts. But language is not merely for the relations of things; it has its own structure and spirit. Therefore, to understand it, one must understand its construction.
In this context it is worth noting that language is not alone. It is intimately linked with imagination. The latter is an attribute of men and “[...] is the most fundamental operation of human consciousness” (Alves, n/d, p. 51, cited in Duarte, Jr., 1988, p. 46). But in the contemporary world dominated by science and the imagination is not seen as a factor of objectivity, this assertion is not borne out by Duarte. Jr. (1988); instead, he believes that science itself is the brainchild and a primary datum of human experience. Thus, the author concludes that “[...] the act of knowledge and learning is, in essence, directed and guided by imagination” (Duarte Jr., 1988, p. 47) in tourism not only promotes the economic growth of
Bulgacov et al. 17 enterprises and localities, but is also a tool for learning from people in the localities where tourism is practiced.
Thus, we undertake a rapprochement between the theory of activity and the theory of innovation in order to infer how social practices are constructed and reconstructed, contributing to understanding the dialogue of multiple voices and perspectives of actors seeking to innovate in tourism.
Hjalager (2010) identifies two lines of approach in the investigation of innovation in tourism: the first follows convergence, which recognizes tourism as a sector in the economy and incorporates the research contributions and assumptions made in the field of industrial innovation.
The second, called the diverging line, recognizes tourism as a phenomenon and denies the vision of a “tourism industry”. Research conducted with the divergent approach, according to the author, should be based on other fields of knowledge, such as anthropology and social and cultural studies. Thus, using the classification indicated by Hjalager (2010), this research in innovation in tourism is positioned along the diverging line. It is believed that innovation in tourism consists of much more than the pursuit of creating products and services based on the expectations of tourists.
Locally based tourism is an alternative approach to the mercantilist perspective of the industry. In Zaoual’s view (2009, p. 58) “the standard of tourism economy prevents the dialogue of cultures and reduces up to a folklore,” ending with the “desire of mutual discovery.”
The author adds that, since the tourism constitutes the object of a sale, the authenticity of the exchange relationship tends to disappear and give way to an illusion, an artifice which progressively inhibits demand.
This type of tourism, categorized as communitybased tourism or tourism locally based, is understood as a type which, besides being organized in a manner peculiar to itself and the community where it occurs, produces gains for itself and not for outsiders who are there to explore the activity (Bartholo, Sansolo&Bursztyn,
2009).
Thus, a change is produced in the socio-cultural dimension of community life which has consequences for relations with tourists. Communities begin to sell not what they think tourists want, but what they consider to be valuable in a cultural and environmental way (Bursztyn,
2009).
Tourism locally based refers us to the fact that tourism owned by people in the community has effective control over decisions about tourism in their locality.
Thus, tourism is centered on the community and the individuals and their development within it are active agents. Locally based tourism can only be developed “if the protagonists in these destinations are subjects and not objects of the process” (Irving, 2009, p. 111). This role of the tourist experience facing the indigenous
The clear pre-requisite is to identify a desire for

18 J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult. dialogue between the visitors and the visited. According to Zaoual (2009, p. 59-60) this needs a “change of economic autonomy and imposes the need to incorporate other dimensions”, like culture. It also leads to a proliferation of new concepts in tourism, such as:
“solidarity tourism, intercultural tourism, nature tourism, ecotourism, sustainable tourism, proximity, tourism memory and history, tourism values.”
In the tourism based on place, the practice of tourism is understood from local development proposals which aim at the economic advancement of the localities from a people centered approach seeking to address the host community, thereby promoting the identity, culture and sociocultural education of the places visited.
In this analysis, tourism as a social practice is also a practical economic, political, cultural and educational way forward, as it involves social relationships which are the fruit of a contemporary way of living. Arnaboldi and Spiller
(2011) argue that tourism is conducted by an active set of relationships in which individuals (producers and users), objects and spaces (such as landscapes and even transport) have equal importance. The condition for tourism based on local people “is the encounter between identities in the sense of sharing and mutual learning”
(Irving, 2009, p.116).
Effectively, locally based tourism can help certain regions to harness the potential of existing structures while involving those who live there in the processes of learning and developing tourist practices. According to
Maldonado (2009), tourism communities become aware of the potential of their assets and may, from their valuation, develop innovative ways of managing their territories. This means that, the more homogeneous a locale may seem in its culture, its history or its economic structure, the more one must try to discover its potential, and the greater the possibility of innovation.
Shaw and Williams (2009) focus on the concepts of community of practice and learning regions as the main mechanisms for the transfer and management of knowledge in the context of innovation in tourism. Thus, locally based tourism becomes possible for communities which can mobilize a highly cohesive set of subjects around a common goal and seek alternatives and potential locations.
To Zaoual (2009), a configuration appropriate to the local potential can lead to find out sources of innovation being ignored inside the community. This configuration depends on the systems of representation in which the actors from the locality, in their particular situation, consider the historical background and culture of their place and its reinterpretation in the present, because for
Zaoual innovation begins with a change in look. Local development is thus carried out on a human scale; here it is understood that people from their active participation in decision-making should receive the power to reaffirm potential and local identities.
A location consists of individual behavior and all collective and material manifestations of a destination, with its landscape, its architecture, its know-how and techniques, its mode of economic organization and coordination, among other factors. Thus, each location has a wide variety of references, imaginary stories and memories. Thus, opportunities for local innovations should be identified, taking into account the local context, expressing the community’s beliefs, common knowledge, diversity, historical memory among other factors.
METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
This study was developed on the basis of the methodological proposal of Aguiar and Ozella (2009,
2013) for the apprehension of the senses according to the procedures of analysis by the Meaning Cores. For this it used interviews, instruments which these writers considered valuable for allowing access to mental processes, such as sense and meanings. In this study we used the methodology proposed by these writers (2009) to provide conditions for actors’ reflections about the possibilities of introducing expansive and innovative practices in tourism by discussing Activity Theory combined with Innovation Theory, enabling data to be analyzed through the identification of Meaning Cores.
The empirical approach suggested a potential for correlation between an expansive practice and interpretative approaches with the divergent approach of innovation highlighted by Hjalager (2010) (see above).
We interviewed two people, Mr. Rafael Rabbers, the professional responsible for the Colony Residents’
Association and the Dutch Immigration Memorial and Ms.
WillemienStrijker, who owns the only hostel in Cologne,
Oosterhuis and who also works with inbound tourism, specializing in hospitality to groups of local and foreign tourists who come to Castrolanda on behalf of the
Cooperative. These respondents were chosen for their representativeness in the group and because they are also pioneer investors in tourism.
To ensure consistency in the interviews, we planned to capture the observation of non-verbal indicators to complement and/or pair speeches and actions according to the research objective. In an attempt to see what the trajectory of tourism activity means to the community. the study subjects were asked about the creation of
Castrolanda, the Cooperative and the Residents’
Association, the beginnings and the trajectory of tourism in Cologne, learning from its tourist practice, the
(possible) cultural changes from practice and learning through tourism, in addition to the significance of tourism and the innovations for the community.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
By transcribing the interviews, we sought to identify, after

several floating readings, pre-indicators, as terms which might help us to construct the cores. We immersed ourselves in these terms by repetition (or frequency) and paid attention to the emphasis given by informants. Since the goal of the study is to understand the trajectory of tourism from the experience of the social actors, as a signifier of a practice of service, the interviews and observations, we identified the following indicators:
1) Historical Origins, 2) Immigration; 3) Opportunities in Brazil, 4) Cooperative; 5) Education, 6) Religion, 7)
Tourism and the preservation of culture, 8) Tourism as an work alternative; 9) Creation of the Tourism
Association; 10) Complementarities to agricultural production; 11) Tourism as a business; 12) Tourism
Forum; 13) Support of COOPTUR; 14) Shared experiences and difficulties; 15) Learning alone; 16)
Construction of tourism; 17) participatory tourism;
18) Support from SEBRAE; 19) Adding value to the
Colony; 20) The preservation of culture; 21)
Distribution of wealth/riches; 22) Emergence of new ventures.
Those pre-indicators composed a framework that was used in a filtering process owing to its importance for understanding the purpose of the investigation.
Then a second reading allowed a process of agglutination of these pre-indicators, by similarity, complementariness or contrast to enable us to identify which were the most direct ways to reach a possible relevant meaning core, as can be seen in Table 1.
From the identification of indicators and their contents, we selected excerpts from the interviews which illustrate and clarify the indicators in a process of empirical analysis so that the cores of significance were built from the rereading of the material and the agglutination of the indicators and their content.
The meaning cores were then arranged with the objective to identify the contents; the mutual connections between the words and the contents were revealed and targeted, as can be seen in Table 2.
The data were analyzed from the systematization of the Meaning Cores noted above. A continuous process of bringing meaning zones ensued, taking into account the context of the study and notes made from observation in the field.
The analysis was initially made from the intra-core, bearing in mind the need to consider the data constituting each nucleus and subsequently proceed to analyzing the inter-core, as indicated by Aguiar and Ozella (2009).
Below, we present the core of the meaning as set out in the process of systematizing the data:
CORE 1: Castrolandas’s tourism potential
For the respondents, the history concerns differentials and is perceived as an alternative area of work, a
Bulgacov et al. 19 supplementary income and a way of adding value to
Castrolanda, as Willemien highlights:
What led to the start of activities in Colony “(...) was basically the search for new alternative forms of work, and as a way to preserve our culture.” This view is corroborated by Rafael, highlighting the Cooperative as a differential in attracting tourists.
Both respondents still maintain the importance for tourism for the preservation of local culture. According to
Willemien:
“Although tourism is recent in the Colony, it had already made a significative significant change in our care to preserve our culture, and this has had prominence in the media. So a lot of people are coming to know Castrolanda.”
CORE 2: The Cooperative and the Colony’s
Residents’ Association acting in tourism
The Cooperative and Residents’ Association are seen as ways of organizing tourism within the Colony. Tourism has been built in Cologne by the participation of residents, who were free to acceptance or reject the activity. The respondents see themselves as part of the process of making decisions about the tourism site. As
Willemien put it:
“(The Association) was created to assign roles to people in the community who could direct, organize and carry out activities for the organization of the whole
Colony. Anyone can participate and they decide on any kind of subject here”.
Rafael corroborated the importance of the
Association as a space to discuss various issues related to Castrolanda: establishing constructive patterns, cultural issues, promoting different initiatives for the preservation of the Dutch culture among its residents, and such tourism issues as establishing channels for dissemination and promotional material.
CORE 3: Learning relationships among residents
They realize that they must learn alone, but they share their problems and experiences with other members of the Colony and at the same time, they seem to understand that the support of institutions such as the
Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small
Enterprises -SEBRAE and the Tourism Cooperative
[CooperativaParanaense de Turismo – COOPTUR] are great sources of learning, as shown in the statement by
Willemien:
“We learned alone, with the challenges of everyday life, with colleagues and with the assistance of SEBRAE.
We took part in some courses that SEBRAE promoted here in Catrolanda and Castro.”
According to the respondents, SEBRAE has intervened in the form of tourism management, bringing

20 J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult.
Table 1. Indicators for the possible meaning core
PRE-INDICATORS INDICATORS
1) Historical origins, 2) Immigration; 3) Opportunities in Brazil, 4) Cooperative; 5) Education, 6)
Religion
7) Tourism and the preservation of culture 8) Tourism as an alternative work; 9) Creation of the
Tourism Association; 10) Complementarities to agricultural production; 11) Tourism as business; 12) Tourism forum; 13) Support of COOPTUR
14) Shared experiences and difficulties; 15) Learning alone; 16) Construction of tourism;
17) Participatory tourism; 18) Support from SEBRAE
1) History of the Colony and the Cooperative
2) Tourism Trajectory in the Colony
3) Learning from tourism activity
19) Adding value to Castrolanda; 20) The preservation of culture; 21) Distribution of wealth/riches; 22) Emergence of new ventures.
Note. Source : The authors.
Table 2. Meaning Cores
INDICATORS
1) The history of the Colony, immigrants and the Cooperative seen as a differentiator in attracting tourists
4) Inovation in tourism
MEANING CORE
1) Castrolandas’s tourism potencial 2) Tourism is considered an alternative job, a supplementary income and way of adding value to the Colony
3) Tourism is seen as a possible way of preserving the culture.
4) The Cooperative and the Colony’s Residents’ Association are seen as agents to organize tourism in the Colony
5) Tourism is built in the Colony with resident participation, accepting or rejecting tourism
2) Cooperative and Colony’s Residents’
Association acting in tourism
7) The respondents see themselves as part of the decision making process about tourism
8) They realize that they learn alone, but can share their problems and experiences with other members of the Colony.
9) The support of institutions such as SEBRAE and COOPTUR are considered major sources of learning.
10) Tourism is considered innovative in offering unique products and services.
11) Interviewees perceive tourism innovation in the Colony by the emergence of new ventures
12) Tourism is seen as a business and there is a concern to offer differentiated products and services.
3) Learning relationships among residents
4) Innovation possibilities from tourism
13) The supply of tourism products and services brings no noticeable changes in the culture of the Colony.
Note. Source : The authors.
models and requirements for tourism in the Colony. As we could observe during the interviews, however, local entrepreneurs appear to depend on SEBRAE guidelines for developing tourism in the town and this has hindered the dialogue and the finding of solutions within the group.
CORE 4: Innovation possibilities from tourism and there is a concern to offer differentiated products and services.
In the view of one of the respondents, the supply of tourism products and services has brought no noticeable change to the culture of Cologne; rather, tourism is seen as a way to preserve and spread the culture of the
Colony. According to Willemien:
Tourism is considered innovative by the respondents, in offering unique products and services. As they see it, tourism in the Colony means the emergence of innovative new ventures, since the activity is seen as a business
“Although tourism is recent in the Colony, it has had a significant change in our care to preserve our culture, and this has had prominence in the media. So many people are coming to know Castrolanda.”

Bulgacov et al. 21
Table 3. Theoretical and empirical relationships
EMPIRICAL THEORETICAL
CORE 1: Castrolandas’s tourism potential
CORE 2: The actions of the
Cooperative and the Colony’s
Residents’ Association tourism
CORE 3: Learning relationships among residents
Shaw and Williams (2009) highlight the concepts of a community of practice and learning regions as the main mechanisms for the transfer and management of knowledge in the context of innovation in tourism. Tourism development from a local base becomes possible by mobilizing a highly cohesive set of subjects around a common goal, in search of alternatives and potential locations.
Opportunities for local innovations should be made by taking into account the local context, expressed by the residents’ beliefs, common knowledge, diversity and historical memory, among other factors (ZAOUAL, 2009)
For Lundvall (1992), innovation is part of a learning process. The learning processes and creation of knowledge emerge as central issues in the capacity to innovate. This knowledge is generated through communities of practice which Wenger defines as (2006, s
/ p) “[...] groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn, and try to make them even better as they interact regularly.”
As stated by Stoner and Freeman (1999), innovation in this context comes as a creative solution applied to problems and opportunities identified in this case within the Colony.
CORE 4: Innovation possibilities from tourism
Note. Source : The authors.
DUTCH
IMMIGRATION
TOURISM AS A
SOURCE OF
INCOME AND
THE
PRESERVATION
OF CULTURE
INNOVATION
COLLECTIVE
LANGUAGE
RESIDENTS’
ASSOCIATION
LEARNING IS
THROUGH
COLLECTIVE
MEETINGS OF
RESIDENTS´
ASSOCIATION
AND
PRACTICAL
TOURISM
ACTIVITIES.
PRACTICES
Figure 1.
Analytical model from the theoretical and empirical research
Source: The authors.
But we could see the search for a change in language and posture for receiving visitors, and entrepreneurs have been trying to adapt their customs to receive visitors better.
From the information collected and transcribed in this chapter, Table 3 shows the relationship between the cores identified through empirical research by means of the theoretical framework presented in the work.
The relationship between empirical and theoretical makes us think of a model which enters the core of the meaning. Castrolanda is identified in the innovation process. In Figure 1, we can identify the cores raised and the characteristics of the locality, which can then work jointly in order to generate innovations for tourism in
Castrolanda.

22 J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult.
CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained from the content analysis of the interviews indicated that the main meaning cores were: the tourism potential of Castrolanda; performance of the
Cooperative and the Residents’ Association in tourism; learning relationships among the residents, and opportunities for innovation in tourism.
These cores suggest that tourism is recognized by the respondents as an activity relevant to Castrolanda and that its history and features are the major attractions in the configuration and development of local tourism.
Tourism is seen as an economic activity and therefore also as a source of business opportunities and labor supply, supplementary income and a way of adding market value to the Colony. An important finding is that tourism is accepted as a means of preserving the local culture and that, from their speeches, respondents did not perceive any significant change in their habits and customs, such as is common when a community with the characteristics of Castrolanda opens its doors to visitors.
Although set up as a community of practice and embracing the assumptions of tourism on a local basis, the meaning and significance created by the interviewees are closer to the divergent approach of innovation, discerned by Hjalager (2010) as a consequence of
Schumpeterian innovation.
Although the respondents claim that they learned on their own, their speech shows that the fact that they are embedded in a community of practice (in the
Cooperative) does not encourage them to share their problems with any group. For them, much of the information comes from collaborating institutions such as
SEBRAE and COOPTUR: they seem to be very dependent on the orientation of these institutions instead of developing their own forms of tourism management and innovation. Nevertheless, the respondents identified the Cooperative and the Residents’ Association as institutions which organize tourism in Castrolanda, and therefore they feel them to be part of the decision-making process regarding this tourism. The cores suggest that tourism is recognized by the respondents as an economic activity relevant to Castrolanda and therefore also as a source of business opportunities and labor, of supplementary income and thus as a way of adding market value to the Colony as a whole, which is influenced by SEBRAE and COOPTUR.
Here, their accounts corroborate the notion of transcendence learning indicated by Engeström (2001). It is clear, from the analysis of the interviews, that the interaction and exchange of information with external stakeholders, in particular with SEBRAE, influence the way in which respondents signify innovation within the
Colony.
Tourism is a relatively new practice in this destination, which provides us with material for reflecting on the perception of innovation in tourism in the Colony.
Innovation is seen as the result of offering differentiated products and services and, therefore, tourism is considered innovative by these respondents who feel that the history and culture of the place are unique and hence, in their perception, sources of innovation. It is believed, however, that an alternative approach to innovation in
Castrolanda can be envisaged from the rescue of authenticity, appreciation and the awareness of tourism in a local base; all these become possible through mobilizing a highly cohesive set of subjects around a common goal and by seeking potential alternative sites which by definition are innovative.
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How to cite this article: Bulgacov Y.L.M., da Cunha S.K, Zdepski
F.B, Menezes V.O (2014). The Practice of Tourism in Castrolanda –
Paraná/Brazil: analysis of the culture and the innovation dynamic from the Meaning Cores. J. Res. Hosp. Tourism Cult. 2(1):13-23