Abstract
This article aims to discuss some theoretical and historical references that can illuminate the discussion about Brazilian social formation and how tourism has contributed to reinforce a modus operandi, anchored in social inequality, which has always guided the performance of the national State in communion with the aspirations of a conservative, racist and neoliberal elite. For that, bibliographic and documental research were used in order to unravel the relationship between tourist activity and the maintenance of social inequality in the discourse of the main public tourism policies implemented by the Brazilian government in recent decades. As a main result, it was found that the discourse of combating social inequality has been the motto of the main public tourism policies implemented in the country, serving to legitimize their real intentions towards the populations residing in the territories that received these actions.
Keywords:
Tourism; Social inequality; Public policy; Conservative culturalism; Brazil