Paper short abstract:

This paper introduces an investigation on the presence of foreign women traveling in Brazil, especially alone or without male counterparts, in a context of leisure and beach tourism, drawing up my ethnographic work at the village of Trancoso-BA.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I will present my ethnographic work turning to the changes of international tourism in Trancoso-BA and its landscapes, to the biographies and experiences of female foreign tourists as well as present local perceptions about them. This investigation's questions derive from the development of an international tourism market targeted toward women, the rise of international tourism in Brazil and a significant number of subjects with negative connotation on foreign tourists published in the national media (facts dating to the early 2000s). Examining the expressions and representations in terms of femininity, masculinity, embodiment, "ethnicity" and nationality that permeate and surround the tours of these women in Brazil, I articulate the ethnographic observations and interviews taking into account the ways in which tourism practices affect the host society's economy, culture, landscapes, as well as the "traveling cultures". And, specially, how the circulation of differences in terms of gender, cultural capital, income, race, color, nationality, age and sexuality, whether strenghtens or shakes sociocultural conventions, enhances or changes the political economy of cosmopolitan movements such as in tourism.