Tourist destinations and development: what was published by the scientific community in Brazil before COVID-19 pandemic?

Tourism has been the object and subject of different scholars in recent decades. Studies and research are concerned with a thematic diversity, from more traditional themes to the most recent ones which were incorporated due to globalization, the emergence and development of technologies associated with entrepreneurship, and innovation. This study is part of a set of other studies carried out within the scope of the research project funded by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), which relates the development of governance and developed destination in collaboration with several Brazilian and foreign higher education institutions. This motivated the analysis of scientific publications on tourist destinations in Brazil and their relationship with development, in the period prior to the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic (COVID-19). The article adopted a qualitative approach and secondary data, specifically the scientific publications of the specialized database Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library (Spell).The result revealed that scientific production in the field of tourism development in the country has evolved in quality, but is still restricted, a fact inferred by the small number of articles found on the researched topic, mainly on methodologies and indicators for the development of tourist destinations.