The gastronomic tourist potential of the Pantanal region from the perspective of the residents

The tourist region of Pantanal is explored having a diversity of tourist products. The typical food has a great potential to be transformed into a product, due to the traditions, forms of occupation and housing, with indigenous, colonizers and explorers’ influences, as well as all the cultural identities present in the territory, denoting the appreciation of local identity. From this perspective, it was detected in loco that the gastronomy is little explored in tourism, being only a component that adds value to the main tourist product of the region, the tourism linked to nature and all its forms of consumption. From this context, the aim of this research was to identify the gastronomic tourist potential from the perception of the residents about the typical dishes that can be considered tourist products. As methodological procedures, it was used literature and document review, with exploratory research with qualitative and quantitative approach. A questionnaire was subsequently analyzed with simple percentage technique. For the qualitative data, it was used the Content Analysis technique (CA) of Bardin (2011). As result, the typical dishes of Pantanal were identified and the emergence of new dishes considered typical by the residents. And for the residents reconstruct the identity of some dishes can help to preserve the originality arising from the cultural history, and this, understood as fundamental for the residents of the region, since they preserve the history of this territory. La región turística del Pantanal es explorada con una diversidad de productos turísticos. La comida típica tiene un gran potencial para ser transformada en un producto, debido a las tradiciones, formas de ocupación y vivienda, con influencias indígenas y colonizadoras, y todas las demás identidades culturales presentes en el território, que denota la apreciación de la identidade local. Desde esta perspectiva, se detectó in loco que la gastronomía se explora de forma turística muy reducida, siendo sólo un componente del principal producto turístico de la región, que es el turismo vinculado a la naturaleza y todas sus formas de espectacularización y consumo. A partir de este contexto, esta investigación tuvo como objetivo general identificar el potencial turístico gastronómico a partir de la percepción de los residentes sobre los platos típicos que pueden ser considerados productos turísticos. Como procedimientos metodológicos, se optó por una revisión bibliográfica y documenta