The rural tourism business: entrepreneurship in Sao Paulo state (Brazil)

The rural tourism segment has been gaining national and international recognition and causing interest in public managers, professionals and researchers. The need to understand the dynamics of management and operation of business can be perceived in the various studies about the rural tourism enterprise's profile elaborated by entities that perceive the potential and relevance of the matter. However, the results generated are still fragile and little precise. That is why there is still a lack of numbers about the enterprises or about the demand of tourists for this kind of product and service. Inside this context, there has been proposed to contribute with the construction of knowledge about this theme, investigating the rural tourism enterprises in the state of Sao Paulo. To do so, data collected by Rural Tourism Association of Sao Paulo (ABRATURR/SP) in 2014 has been systematized and analysed. As a result, its been observed that the segment is active in all sao Paulo territory, with a lot of enterprises with a long trajectory of operation, but make up a little diverse service offer and find themselves in a profound process of transformation.