Resumo: This study aims to assess the territorial plans´ influence in the development process of the cities with tourism activity, having the Master Plan for Sustainable Development of Joinville City (Brazil) as case study. The methodological procedure adopted is based on social research about documental analysis that enables the scientific study, by means of a detailed analysis of these documents. To this end, the 'Master Plan for Sustainable Development of Joinville City' is adopted as the basic document of this study. As a result, it is observed that tourism is not so evident as a strategic activity for sustainable development to the city of Joinville, since the biggest part of the Plan is directed to the territorial reorganization of the city. It was concluded that there is a need for an assessment model of process plans in order to diagnosticate the effectiveness degree of the territorial planning’s process and their inflections and breaks for the tourism development’s process of Joinville City.
