In mid-June 2022, when the presidential race was already close, different working groups were created to assist in the construction of government proposals for candidate Lula.
One of these groups – tourism – had the active contribution of some members of the Laboratory of Sustainable Tourism Studies (LETS), who discussed guidelines to leverage Brazilian tourism.
The feeling that took so many of us was one of great hope.
Academics, representative figures from different sectors and thinkers who are dedicated to researching current and future tourism were gathered there. A select group that voluntarily dedicated hours building something they believed to be the best for tourism in the country.
With Lula's election, hope became even greater.
Finally, there would be an opening for dialogue and participation, as we saw that most of those who made up the transition group responsible for the issue were already familiar with the sector. Would the future Minister leave there? Or, who knows, the President of Embratur?
However, the reality that began to take shape brought a certain disappointment. For those who closely follow the backstage of politics in Brasilia, the Ministry of Tourism has long been considered a bargaining chip, used to meet the partisan yearnings of possible allies (mainly from the MDB). It is not a portfolio with a large budget, and it depends a lot on parliamentary amendments. For the year 2023, as we have already discussed in previous article on the LETS blog , The allocation of funds was even lower. It is also not a portfolio that attracts much political visibility, with the exception of works carried out in some electoral strongholds and which are not always tourist destinations. Thus, by allocating the MTur to an ally, the elected government "fulfills the quota" and does not lose control of an area considered strategic.
The absence of technical criteria for the definition of the Minister of Tourism is clear. Analyzing the biography of those who held the position, it is noted that of the 13 who preceded the current one, Minister Daniela Carneiro, only five have had any previous experience in the industry (considering that the preview of two of them was at Embratur, shortly before they took over MTur). In other words, in fact, only three had a greater ballast before taking office.
With the new Minister, the script repeats itself. A member of the União Brasil party, Daniela Carneiro is in her second term as a Federal Deputy. Before entering political life, the Deputy, who is a pedagogue, worked at the Municipal Department of Education and the Department of Social Assistance and Citizenship, both in Rio de Janeiro, and at the Department of Social Assistance and Citizenship of Belford Roxo, the city where her husband is Mayor. Apparently He has never worked or studied about tourism and its economic and socio-environmental implications.
In her electoral campaign, the Deputy used as her main platforms the defense of women, children, with an emphasis on autistic people, and the elderly. From the second round of the elections, she and her husband, even coming from a Bolsonarist stronghold, supported Lula's candidacy. After the victory at the polls, the Deputy was appointed to join the transition team in the Women folder . When interviewed, she stated that her work is "focused on the agendas pertinent to the family and women".
Reviewing the history of MTur, we should not have been so surprised by the nomination of Deputy Daniela Carneiro, or some politician in her place. This was a highly predictable scenario. However, as if the new Minister's lack of knowledge of the sector were not enough, our concerns increased after the news, muffled by the unfortunate January 8, of her possible involvement with "armed organizations of parallel power". There are photos that document this closeness of the new Minister with a man named in the final report of the CPI of the Militias (2008) as the leader of one of these groups in the Baixada Fluminense (RJ), convicted and imprisoned for homicide. The media reported these facts extensively in the first fortnight of the new government's work, generating a series of wear and tear.
The most recent appointment to MTur is also strange. It is Eduardo Cunha's former advisor, the "impeachment planilheiro", Carlos Henrique Menezes Sobral, who took over the Secretariat of Sustainability, Territorial Development and Infrastructure. In his history, Sobral brings the chief of staff of the Government Secretariat in the administration of Michel Temer, parliamentary and federative directorate of the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Citizenship, the advisory to the former Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga and a new performance in the Government Secretariat occupied by Flávia Arruda, the last three in Bolsonaro's administration. In addition to all this, he was also an advisor to former deputy Geddel Vieira Lima, arrested in 2017.
On the other hand, Embratur seems to be adopting a different path, basing the appointments on More technical criteria . The current president of the Institution, Federal Deputy Marcelo Freixo, like others, has no experience in the tourism sector, having gained national notoriety when he chaired the CPI of the Militias in Rio de Janeiro , the same one that implicated the man who appears in the photos with Minister Daniela Carneiro.
However, the most recent nominations for Embratur positions signal that Freixo is seeking to surround himself with professionals with experience in tourism. First, we had the appointment of Jaqueline Gil as Director of Marketing, Intelligence and Communication at Embratur, the Brazilian Agency for International Tourism Promotion . Today, Bruno Reis and Mariana Aldrigui were announced as Manager of International Markets, Fairs and Events and Manager of Research and Data Intelligence, respectively.
Reis held the presidency of EMPROTUR - Empresa Potiguar de Promoção Turística, is vice president of FORNATUR - National Forum of State Secretaries and Directors of Tourism and has served as an executive at Tom Jobim International Airport. Aldrigui is a research professor in the area of Tourism at USP, president of the Tourism Council of the Federation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism of the State of São Paulo and coordinator of the NGO Global Travel & Tourism Partnership in Brazil in the institution's expansion project to Latin America.
That feeling of hope, palpable in the working groups of the presidential race and in the transition, is reborn with the latest appointments to Embratur. Unlike MTur, this technical body that takes over, is clearly more aligned with the demands by those who supported President Lula.
This very opposite scenario at MTur and Embratur leads us to a fundamental reflection: governability is one thing – absolutely necessary and essential. Another, very different, is complacency. After all, are we or are we not talking about the same government?
