Abstract
The economic importance of tourism is a key reason for developing it in many Brazilian municipalities, as was the case of São Paulo City Hall in the 1930s. For this purpose, a division to manage this activity was established within the Department of Culture (DC). This Department is the focus of the present article, which aims to understand the importance of tourism in the municipal cultural policy, describe the responsibilities, and analyze the activities developed by the Division of Tourism and Public Entertainment. Defined as a qualitative descriptive research, it uses content analysis to scrutinize sources of different nature, such as of newspapers, legislation, administrative processes, etc. The influence of the public management of the Federal District on the planning and, consequently, on the construction of the narrative of the city of São Paulo as a tourist destination in the 1930s is the main contribution of the study, in a period when there were no federal guidelines for the sector. Public investment in carnival festivities and the reluctance to approve the proposals issued by the Division of Tourism and Public Entertainment (DTDP) suggest that municipal investment guidelines for making the city a tourist destination were defined at a higher level than the DC and were not part of its cultural policy, yet the division gained external representativeness to deal with tourism issues in the city and was mobilized to support the organization of public events promoted by the municipality.
Keywords:
History of Tourism; Department of Culture; Division of Tourism and Public Entertainment; São Paulo, SP