"Urubici": The Geopolitical Formation of a Tourist Heterotopia

Based on the studies of Michel Foucault and concepts such as heterotopia and device to define the fields of analysis, this work is the result of the author's observations on the effects of the Tourism Regionalisation Programme - Roteiros do Brasil, in stimulating the interiorisation of tourism in the country. The study was carried out by analysing the knowledge-power relations, from a geopolitical perspective, related to the production of a tourist destination, focusing on tourist practices and the multiple power games and power relations involved in the process of touristification of Urubici between 2000 and 2009. Cartographies, genealogies and archaeologies acted as tools in the development of the analyses, from which perspectives on the tourist experience in the municipality were drawn. After producing and analysing the data, the author came to the conclusion that a tourist destination is not a homogenous space, but rather consists of multiple positions, implying geopolitical disputes in the "design" of tourist practices. In addition, the heterotopic constitution of a tourist destination results in the production of modes of subjectivation from spaces/states of compensation.