“Now (you will say) hear stars. Right
You’ve lost your sense!”
The first verses of poem 13 in the Via Lactea series, by the Rio poet Olavo Bilac (1865-1918), one of the main names in Brazilian Parnassianism, indicate as proof of a “crazy friend” who, to hear the stars, opened the windows “pale with astonishment”. But, while for ordinary mortals, prose with the stars would be the hallucinated act of a delirious poet, for a very contemporary group, engaging in conversation and admiration with celestial diversity is an ecotourism activity that is gaining more and more followers every day around the world.
According to Dennys Hyde, from Entreparques, it is estimated that the astrotourism market, as the activity that attracts those who want to contemplate phenomena such as eclipses, meteor showers and starry skies is called, generated around US$250 million worldwide in 2023. With a projected growth of 10% per year, it is expected to reach US$400 million by 2030.
Of course, if in 1888 it was enough for the poet to open the windows of his house in Rio de Janeiro to dedicate a word of prose to the stars, in modern cities of the 21st century, full of lights, the task is not so simple.
“There are studies that say we are increasing light pollution in the world by 10% per year,” explains Hyde. “And, although this data is concentrated in the northern hemisphere, including with the advent of LED lamps, which are more efficient, we have wasted more light”, he adds.
If this reality has the positive side of improving the safety of cities, the excess light ends up leading more people to seek out the darkness of night in nature.
“Tourists who do astrotourism, in general, bring more income to the observation sites, because they will end up staying there overnight after contemplation”, points out Hyde.
Although this is still an incipient activity in Brazil and there is no precise demand data, there is already a conservation unit certified by the North American agency Dark Sky Park as a “dark sky site”. This is the Desengano State Park, in the north of Rio de Janeiro, 269 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, the first in the country to receive certification. And with an eye on the potential of this segment, the city of Matureia, in Paraíba, 310 kilometers from the capital João Pessoa and neighboring the Serra do Teixeira National Park, approved a law to protect dark skies in search of its own approval.
Even without international approval, other national parks are listed in Iastro (Astrotourism Potential Index of National Parks) as having high potential for the activity, based on an assessment created by researchers from the Astrotourism in Brazilian Parks project. As Folha reported, among the excellent ones are Chapada dos Veadeiros, the sources of the Parnaíba River, Viruá, Serra da Capivara, Serra do Teixeira, Catimbau, SEMper-Vivas, Sete Cidades and Pantanal Mato-Grossense.
Even among the places classified below excellent, but still great according to Iastro, is the Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, which already offers specific excursion packages for this activity. And, in Paraná, the Iguaçu National Park, classified as very good by the study, sells the tour called Céu das Cataratas, previously restricted to guests of the Hotel das Cataratas, and now open to the general public.
So, shall we hear stars?
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