»  Tourism and Brazil

 Ecotourism

In practice, however, there is little true ecotourism in Brazil, at best we can speak of nature-based tourism with good intentions.

Brazil is a country with premier potential for nature based tourism, because it has:

•         diverse ecosystems
•         breathtaking landscapes
•         large areas of wilderness
•         high diversity of wildlife
•         an extensive national park and conservation unit system
•         cultural variety and friendly people
•         many rivers, waterfalls and lakes
•         large number of adventure activities
•         a long coastline with many spectacular beaches
•         important palaeontological and archaeological sites

You can get a glimpse of the possibilities at www.sustainabletourismbrazil.org

Nature based tourism has a long history in Brazil and this includes visits by many famous naturalists and scientists like Darwin, Spix and von Martius, Humboldt, Bates and Agassiz.

As a tourism segment, the potential of ecotourism for Brazil was recognized in the eighties, as evidenced by:

-         since 1985 efforts by Embratur to develop ecotourism (guide training courses, specialized marketing materials)
-         start-up of premier products like the Pousada Caiman in the Pantanal and Amazon boat cruises
-         start-up of major domestic specialized operators like Ambiental and Freeway.

With the Rio 92 conference ecotourism became a household word. Enormous potential was seen in incoming ecotourism. In 1994, Brazilian ecotourism guidelines were officially developed.

In reality however, economic turmoil, lack of consistent government action and bad international press stagnated the international market. When Brazil finally stabilised its economy (using a dollar anchor and stimulation of imports) and started reverting its bad image it had basically priced itself out of the - international - market. Only now is it slowly growing its reputation on the international market.

But in the meantime the domestic market took off. Because of an increasing "eco-conscience"  in Brazil, good domestic promotion, supply of "ecotourism" products and destinations started to grow quickly. Today there are more than 100 nature based destinations in Brazil.

There are obstacles to be overcome however. Ecotourism in Brazil has become a catch-all phrase from anything to a walk in the woods to a stay at an "eco-resort". Too high expectations of size and profitability of the market, mean that many investments fail. There is a need to improve the quality of manpower, especially multilingual guides and access to appropriate technology and information on good practices need to be improved. In terms of marketing, Brazil also has too much of a domestic focus.

On the bright side, some important developments are taking place:
•         The area of protected lands is increasing through private reserves (RPPNs) and new conservation units.
•         Investments are being made in improving visitor infrastructure in National Parks.
•         Large NGOs such as Conservation International and WWF are helping ecotourism projects get off the ground.
•         Community-based tourism is on the rise.
•         Tourism projects in Brazil are starting to create cooperation and marketing networks, based on affinities like environmental codes of conducts, community base tourism practices.
•         The Mamirauá Development Reserve received both the Conde Nast Ecotourism Award and the Smithonian Institution/Traveler's Conservation Foundation Sustainable Awars for its work in sustainable development and ecotourism.
•         The Brazil Sustainable Tourism Certification Program (PCTS -www.pcts.org.br) which started in 2003
•   The standards for sustainability in accommodations developed by the PCTS, have been adopted by the official normatization system (ABNT) and are now available as ABNT-NBR 15.401