The text is divided into two parts: a brief summary of important economic theories relating to tourism, based on recent literature, and analysis of general and specific data on tourism. 

The information is comprised of data collected by the Centro de Estudos Econômicos (Economic Studies Center) of Federação do Comércio do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Fecomércio-RJ, relating to, amongst other things, the state of tourism infrastructure in each of the 92 cities.

These figures are supplemented by a map of prevalent tourist activities in each region, grouped together by municipalities, developed by the Departamento de Geografia da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Department of Geography at the State University of Rio de Janeiro).