Mobility and Tourism: Hospitality in Collective Transport in Caxias do Sul/RS

Abstract

In the city, the perspective opened by a good internal communication net provides inhabitants- and, consequently tourists/ visitors who are there- independence to trace their ways towards the destiny they want to reach. But, more than this, transport must be considered as one of the services which, in their inter-relation with managing processes and cultural traces of a community, set it as a Collective Welcoming Body (SANTOS and PERAZZOLO, 2012), where inhabitants and tourists/visitors can feel they are taken into account regarding their needs and social-human expectations. From this collective perspective of hospitality, and according to the Ministry of Cities and National Secretary of Transport and Urban Mobility, cities must offer the necessary means to favor people mobility, included that of handicapped ones, implementing specific municipal policies for the transport system. This article presents results of a piece of a qualitative research done in Caxias do Sul in 2013, with the aim of identifying signals of hospitality in local urban collective transport. Analysis of conditions of hospitality is particularly supported on concepts of accessibility, legibility, and identity proposed by Grinover (2007). From this view, results reveal, among other hospitality actions in services offered by the company, availability of elevators to access buses, adapted space for blind people, visibility of information, special door-to-door transport for handicapped people. From this analysis, some proposals for a better service are offered. But, it is important to highlight that these actions do not diminish the importance of existence of public policies that can strengthen permanent qualification of urban collective transport.