TOURISM: DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR REGIONS

This article focuses on the mesorregion called the Southern Half of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with its regions and microrregions, describing the cities it comprises along with some of their demographic, economic and cultural data; the structure of tourism services, tourist attractions; and some tourist routes. It also focuses on the development of tourism in the Southern Half with the economic benefits from the activity, rural tourism and wine tourism. The aim of this study is to discuss the importance of tourism as an economic and social development tool for the Southern Half of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The methodological procedure conducted for this study was a descriptive exploratory research through literature review of physical and digital publications. The Rio Grande do Sul state is divided into two mesorregions, Northern and Southern, with great economic and demographic disparities between them. In this sense, tourism arises an alternative to minimize these regional inequalities, creating the union of municipalities to promote regional development of the areas crossed by the tourist routes.