Our Brazil is with an "S"
Talking about promoting tourist destinations seems to be easy, but it is a complex web that goes beyond sound marketing decisions. A very large synergy is needed between the tourism production chain, which involves public management, private companies, civil society entities, and the resident population. In the case of a country, this synergy has to occur at different levels: federal, state and municipal.
Brazil, a country with more than 215 million inhabitants (IBGE, 2020), received about 6.35 million international tourists in 2019. The record occurred in 2018 with 6.62 million, according to Agência Brasil. To get out of the 5 million were years and years of intense promotion. On the other hand, Portugal, a country with about 10.2 million inhabitants (INE, 2020), received more than 27 million tourists in 2019. Given this, the question that is always asked about tourism in Brazil is: why don't we advance in the international flow?
One of the points that must be taken into account is geography. While Portugal is a short distance from other European countries, by air, which enables a constant flow, Brazil has borders with countries with a history of fragile economies and therefore generators of low flows of tourists. Not to mention the air connectivity that is extremely complicated, both because of the prices that are not competitive and because of the lack of demand.
Another point is the strategies for promoting and governing tourism in the country. Portugal has a history of more than 100 years with tourism, mainly (and to this day) with the English. First with the exploration of Madeira Wine; after World War 1, with the search for thermal waters; the Algarve and the mass tourism that arrived in the 70s with the Charters and packages offered by British operators.
The intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promoted the stagnation of the destination for many years, losing market share to Spain, which in the 80s was emerging in sun and beach tourism.
"It was kind of a blessing. This has allowed us to bet on a more diversified, niche-oriented, more modern and specialized model, as opposed to the logic of masses and large chains", considers João Cotrim de Figueiredo (Turismo de Portugal, Expresso 50, 2017).
The various crises faced by the country, in addition to the exodus of its population at various times, was an opportunity for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector, with a lot of struggle, to stand out in the resumption of the economy. Turismo de Portugal as the entity responsible for regulation, promotion and training emerged in 2007. In 2009, companies l Ow-cost as Ryanair and Easyjet have set up base in Portugal, considerably increasing the flow from Europe to Porto and Lisbon.
The formatting of products in the sports segment such as golf and surfing, brought a new audience to the country. A series of events from then on, more precisely in 2013, when a strategy based on digital marketing and partnerships with Google and other tools was defined, Portugal began to be recognized as a tourist destination that everyone should know.
In addition, there were the strategies of TAP, as the main airline in the country, and the alliances between the production chain and the ERTs (Regional Tourism Entities), responsible for structuring new tourism products, as well as their commercialization and training in hospitality. It is no wonder that in 2022 Portugal received from the World Travel Awards, 12 "Oscars" of tourism and the sky seems to be the limit, as they are always looking for innovative ways to stand out.
Meanwhile, here in Brazil, although we have had a brief "golden age" of international promotion, which began with the Aquarela Plan and the Brazil Brand in 2005, the last 4 years have been overwhelming for tourism. Obviously, we had a pandemic in the middle, and only now have we started to "put our noses out" to breathe. But it wasn't just that. The Brazil Brand, which was created from solid and consistent market research, which shows our country with all its diversity, natural and cultural attributes, was replaced by another that, in addition to not representing us, also fostered something that took us years to change: the image of being a country with sexual appeal and based only on 4 destinations.
What a setback!! It is a fact that we have much greater challenges. Health and education have also suffered in the last 4 years. But tourism needs to be seen as a vector of economic development, as Portugal did about 10 years ago. We are not going to look in the rearview mirror, but we need to learn from what we have today and look to the future. We can observe the good practices of tourism governance in Portugal, when in 2013, after the enactment of the Law of Regional Tourism Entities, the decentralization of decisions was promoted, with the board of directors of these entities elected by tour operators, the private sector and the municipalities.
This governance model was created by local tourism actors, who effectively know the territory and have the mission of acting synergistically with the Tourism Secretariats and Turismo de Portugal itself.
There is no ready-made formula. Nothing is easy, as we said at the beginning, but it is not impossible: look at Portugal. What is urgently needed is that the entire tourism production chain and civil society in Brazil are aligned in favor of international and national promotion.
Now it's time to recover the last 4 lost years. This movement has already started with the recent relaunch of Marca Brasil and the hiring of extremely competent professionals for this great and wonderful challenge.
Let us never forget: our Brazil is with an "S"!
Sources: Accessed on 02.19.2023 at 8 pm
https://onovo.pt/senado/o-sucesso-do-turismo-em-portugal-uma-explicacao-MB11105449
https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2017-06-17-Turismo.-O-segredo-do-nosso-sucesso
https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/economia/noticia/2022-09/gastos-de-turistas-estrangeiros-no-pais-crescem-84-de-janeiro-julho#:~:text=O record number of foreign tourists, %2C were 6%2C35 million .
https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/sites/default/files/2020-11/13Demograficas_2019.pdf