REFLECTIONS IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC: A LOOK AT TOURISM IN AMAZONAS

Abstract

The objective of this article is to characterize in a comparative manner the impacts of the pandemic of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) on the tourism sector in 12 municipalities in the State of Amazonas. For this purpose, has been done a bibliographic and documentary research with public data, such as public finances, number of companies and jobs in the tourism sector, flight information, for the first half of 2019 and the first half of 2020. The municipalities were selected based on the Brazilian Tourism Map (2019-2021) prepared by the Ministry of Tourism (MTur). The main results indicate that there was an increase in the revenue of the tourism sector between 2019 and 2020, however, not all municipalities have available data. Moreover, the airports were empty and there was a decrease in flights and in the number of jobs generated in this sector, although the number of tourist companies there was increase. It is concluded that the tourism sector was extremely affected by the pandemic, and this activity reactivation will be difficult considering the precariousness and insufficiency of municipalities´ health infrastructure and lack of safe procedures and effective way to control and treat the pandemic.