Football and the "New" Mineirão as Tourist Attractions of Belo Horizonte-MG

Abstract

This work had as general objective to research the practice of football tourism in Belo Horizonte-MG. Specifically, the socio-economic profile of the traveling fans who attended the "new" Mineirão during the regular season of Brazilian football, the composition of the travel group, the tourist attractiveness of the stadium, the assiduity of the supporter, the aggregate tourist consumption the football experience and the barriers that prevent the fan from experiencing this leisure practice more often. The instrument used for the data collection was the questionnaire and were applied to the fans on days of games held in Mineirão, in the internal and external areas of the stadium. In order to participate in the survey, the supporter should be over eighteen years of age and not have a permanent residence in the city of Belo Horizonte. It was identified that the socioeconomic profile of the traveling fan has particular characteristics in keeping with this type of public, which is defined, predominantly, as married, adult and with a high level in relation to school education, and also, in line with the scenario of commercialization of Brazilian football, much of it has already become a fan-supporter and the minority is part of an organized crowd. The values ​​intrinsic to the "new" Mineirão are factors that motivate them to want to attend it. With regard to tourist consumption, the minority of traveling fans performed other types of activities besides soccer experience. Therefore, due to the interventions that took place in the urban landscape of the city, which constituted it as a tourist space, as well as through the tourist flow coming from the soccer demand, it is believed that football can be thought, besides the sports dimension, as a tourist attraction capable of promoting tourism in the locality tourism in the locality.