Starting from 2015, on the Combu Island, an Environmental Protection Area belonging to the
insular area of Belém do Pará, a process of touristification began that took it out of its condition
of relative invisibility, attracting more and more visitors. In view of this, this thesis aims to
analyze this process and its main consequences. Having the island as the stage, we sought to
critically reflect on tourism having been constituted under the influence of coloniality and,
consequently, assimilated the notions of development and modernity. Using the debates arising
from the Anthropology of Tourism, with contributions from authors who address decoloniality,
the results presented are fruits of a qualitative anthropological research. This research was based
on ethnography, with direct and participant observation, semi-structured interviews, online
questionnaire and photographic records. Investigations were also carried out on the internet,
seeking to follow on a social network profiles of establishments on the island, material for their
dissemination and comments on posts about the island by profiles of newspapers in the city.
The results presented here are derived not only from the research carried out during the doctoral
period, but from the researches that I have carried out since 2010, which enabled me to follow
the transformations that the island has been going through. Another methodological dimension
was that of action research, in which counterparts of the research were established for the
community. Booklets will be produced for the owners of the establishments and for the visitors,
and a website about the Combu Island was created. As results, it is found that the advancement
of the search for leisure in the place consolidated it as an important tourist spot in Belém,
generating more visibility, local appreciation, employment and income for the population.
However, it attracted the attention of outsiders who also seek to take advantage of the promising
possibilities, deciding to undertake in the place, intensifying the process of touristification. A
disorderly development of tourism is observed, which has been intensifying rapidly, generating
the proliferation of establishments, real estate speculation, disturbance of local daily life,
pollution, erosion, insecurity, emergence of artificial attractions and changes to meet external
demands. It was noticed that the way the activity has been developing in recent years in the
place, reflects the ontologies propagated by coloniality, in the behavior and actions of agents of
the Private Sector, the public Power and visitors. However, the local population has shown its
agency and highlighted its protagonism in the face of this process. Finally, we sought to bring
propositions to advance in the decolonization of tourism.
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