2023-06-04 00:01:31
The environmental policy of the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is an “asset” to promote green tourism, an economic activity that can be key to contributing to the conservation of nature. This was stated by the president of the promotion agency Embratur, Marcelo Freixo.
Since taking power on January 1, Lula has done a 180 degree turn on the environmental policies of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. He promised stop deforestation in the Amazon until 2030 and eradicate illegal mining, another of the biggest threats to the jungle.
“The world does not want to visit a country that devastates its forests, that burns its biomes,” said the head of the Brazilian Agency for the International Promotion of Tourism (Embratur) in an interview with EFE.
Freixo points out that the nature tourism It is especially interesting because it attracts a type of high-income traveler and also because it offers new forms of employment in rural regions, thereby contributing to environmental preservation.
“In relation to illegal logging and illegal mining, tourism can be an economic alternative. Manpower is needed for these places,” he said.
Environmental tourism is not the only segment with great growth potential. Freixo points out that Brazil can exploit its culture, its gastronomy and also “afrotourism” much more.
That segment is especially aimed at Americans interested in black history, who can be shown the ruins of the largest slave port in America, in Rio de Janeiroor the city with the largest black population outside of Africa, Salvador.
“When you develop Afro tourism, you are fighting against racism”, affirms the head of Embratur, recalling the global dimension of the problem of racism and the recent debate fostered around the Racist insults received by the soccer player Vinícius Júnior.
Tourism, in figures
The diversification of tourism is a fundamental strategy, according to Freixo, to increase the weight of tourism in the economy, which is now around 7%.
Brazil received 2.68 million tourists between January and April, a figure similar to the data for 2019, while the expenses accumulated by travelers shot up 32%, up to 2,155 million dollars.
The recovery of tourism is taking place especially thanks to the arrival of Argentines (1.18 million in four months), which represents 44% of the total and exceeds the total number of citizens of that country who visited Brazil in all of 2022.
The head of Embratur believes that the moment is “very favorable” to achieve the goal of exceeding the 6.5 million foreign tourists who arrived in Brazil in 2019.
However, he acknowledges that the high price of air tickets “inhibits” the arrival of travelers from distant source markets, such as Europe and the United States.
The Brazilian authorities, as he explains, are talking with airlines such as TAP, Iberia or Condor to try to increase the number of flights.
challenges
Until these markets recover, the tourism sector in Brazil, a country with 213 million inhabitants, continues to live mainly from the domestic market.
“Am I saying that Brazil can reach 18% of its GDP with tourism, like Portugal? No, but I am saying that tourism can represent much more for the economy than it represents today, which is not little,” he says.
Freixo admits that Brazil need to invest more in infrastructure, in workforce training and promotion, but this aspect clashes with the “lack of political mentality”, which translates into financing difficulties for Embratur, which cannot receive public resources due to its agency status.
Last week, he closed an agreement with Senac and Sesc, two private institutions in the commercial sector, to receive 100 million reais a year (about 20 million dollars) to help in his work.
But these numbers are far from the budget of its main competitors: in 2019, according to Embratur numbers, Brazil invested 13 million dollars in tourism promotion, compared to 60 in Argentina, 160 in Colombia or 490 in Mexico.
Freixo explains that in his first months in office he has focused on setting up a technical team, reorganizing the institution and putting the tourism debate back in the media. “Now we have to make the numbers prove us right,” he concludes.
Source: EFE
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