Doing Tourism

There are three fundamental sets of actors needed for tourism to reach its full potential. The first set consists of private sector entrepreneurs. The second is made up of public agents at the federal, state, and municipal levels. And the third, obviously, is represented by tourists. Each of these sets has a specific and relevant role in ensuring that tourism produces the expected results, namely, generating development, jobs, and income.

The development of tourism also involves three crucial moments in which the roles of public and private initiatives need to be played harmoniously: the structuring of tourism, the qualification of the people involved, and the promotion of tourism. Structuring involves guaranteeing adequate infrastructure in the destination, including access roads, airports, health centers, policing for tourist safety, etc. It also involves the existence of facilities such as hotels, restaurants, attractions, transportation services, among others. Qualification relates to preparing people to perform their functions in the various activities of tourism. Promotion, in turn, is the moment to give visibility to the destination and its attractions, seeking to attract the public.

Understanding these issues is the easy part of "Doing Tourism," although many involved in the activity lack the necessary training to understand this basic logic and, therefore, be able to perform their role adequately. However, what is truly relevant is acting on the larger issues involving the strategic and tactical aspects, which allow tourism to achieve high levels of competitiveness, attracting the desired volume of tourists. This is what can be called the "secret to success."

In the Brazilian case, the weak performance of government entities at various levels in fulfilling their role is noticeable. This situation is largely due to a lack of understanding by those in charge of the country's destiny regarding the meaning of the so-called "multiplier effect of tourism," which, by impacting 57 segments of economic activity, involving businesses in agriculture, industry, and services, promotes a strong synergy in the economy, generating the well-known direct, indirect, and induced impacts. In the case of the private sector, which suffers from a lack of credit, both for investments and working capital, there is a huge disparity in the tourism supply. Throughout Brazil, we can find pockets of competitiveness where quality tourism with a good level of diversity is offered to tourists, in contrast to poorly prepared and deficient destinations.

We are firmly convinced that this state of affairs can be changed for the better, objectively, quickly, and effectively. After all, it is unreasonable that Brazil, with its tourism potential stemming from its natural resources and cultural heritage, should continue to grow at a mediocre pace, year after year, in a merely vegetative way, without the possibility of realizing its enormous potential. We need not only to evolve; we need to change the level of Brazilian tourism. How to do this, however, will be a topic for another time.