Brazil government announces plan to resume tourism

Program is organized in areas ranging from job preservation to the implementation of biosafety and incentive to travel

Nov 11, São Paulo: Resume Brazilian tourism safely and responsibly and recover the sector from the socio-economic impact caused by Covid-19, with the interruption of activities. This is the objective of the Resumption of Tourism, an initiative launched on Tuesday (10) by the Ministry of Tourism, which brings projects and actions that seek effective and concrete results for the area until July 31, 2021. The measures join efforts of the public and private initiative, of the third sector and also of the S System, which includes Sesc, Senai, Sesi and Sebrae.

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"What happens here today is a great coalition, a great alliance in favour of the resumption of Brazilian tourism", says the Minister of Tourism, Marcelo Álvaro Antônio, in an event promoted at the Planalto Palace, which was attended by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro.

The program for the Resumption of Tourism is organized in four areas: preservation of companies and jobs in the tourism sector; improving the structure and qualification of destinations; implementation of biosafety protocols; and promotion and incentive to travel.

The actions range from reinforcing the granting of credit lines to capitalize on companies in the sector and preserve jobs to works to improve the infrastructure of tourist destinations. Provision is also made for encouraging natural tourism and courses on health protocols and improving professional qualifications.

The minister recalled that tourism is a very representative sector in Brazil, as it employs 7 million people and accounts for 8.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the sum of all the wealth produced in the country.

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“We directly impact 53 segments of the production chain, so it really is a sector that has a very important contribution to Brazil's economic agenda”, highlights the minister.

The minister also stressed that Brazilian tourism has an important potential, as it is the number one in the planet's natural resources and the eighth in the world cultural resources.

New Campaign

To promote the Resumption of Tourism, the campaign “Travel with responsibility and rediscover Brazil” was also launched. It is a series of videos aimed at promoting Brazilian tourist destinations that will be broadcast throughout the country.

Tourism in 2019

In 2019, the sector achieved records and important achievements, according to the Ministry of Tourism. It registered a growth of 2.6%, more than double the GDP growth in the period, and an increase of 163.6% in the creation of new jobs in relation to 2018. “2019 was a very promising year. We expected a lot more in 2020 when the Covid-19 crisis happened ”, explains Marcelo Álvaro.

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Measures to reduce economic impacts on tourism

To reduce the economic impacts on account of Covid-19 in the tourism sector, the Federal Government has taken a series of measures. In addition to focusing on maintaining jobs, through the payment of Emergency Aid, making working hours more flexible and temporarily suspending the employment contract, it issued a Provisional Measure to guarantee consumer rights for rescheduling tourist services and events and, at the same time, avoid the bankruptcy of service providers.

The Federal Government also allocated R $ 5 billion to credit projects registered with Cadastur, a list of tourism service providers, to enable companies to survive.

“The Ministry of Tourism's agenda, our agenda, has become almost exclusively economic. The understanding was that we needed to bail out the sector immediately, and the Federal Government did not shy away from that mission ”, adds the minister.

Responsible Tourism Seal

The Ministry of Tourism also launched the Responsible Tourism Seal. Brazil was one of the first 10 countries in the world to have official biosafety protocols for the sector. Finally, the minister left a message to the Brazilian tourist: “To you, tourist, we can say that Brazilian tourism is prepared to receive you. Look for establishments that have the Responsible Tourism Seal. There are more than 23 thousand establishments throughout Brazil, obeying all biosafety protocols ”.

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For establishment owners, the seal is an identification for the consumer that the place is complying with all protocols giving more confidence and security to the tourist. That was what André Teston, director of the Association of Inns and Hotels of Maresias (SP) said. "We here at the association have around 50 members. All of them have already joined the Responsible Tourism Seal, a program launched by the Federal Government where we adopt good hygiene and sanitation practices and rules to combat Covid-19."

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