Ministry of Tourism presents sustainability map at Casa Brasil

Project carried out in partnership with Braztoa was presented during an event for travel agents and tour operators

As of today (9 August), tourists, businesspeople, travel agents and public managers can have access to a sustainibility map of Brazilian tourism and learn more about successful initiatives in the area. Developed by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with Braztoa, this digital platform, called "Sustainable Tourism: Award-Winning Initiatives - Braztoa and Ministry of Tourism", allows users to search information on the topic easily and quickly.

The website will allow users to locate all initiatives that have received the Braztoa Sustainability Award. The information is presented in georeferenced form, and is an open invitation for tourists to enjoy destinations and enterprises based on sustainable actions. The official launch of the platform took place during the 'A Day of Cruises in Rio' event, held at Casa Brasil with representatives of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agents (Abav), the Brazilian Association of Tourism Operators (Braztoa) and the Brazilian Association of Sea Cruises (Abremar).

The map provides information on all 56 award recipients since 2012 in English, Spanish and Portuguese. "We hope it will serve as an inspiration for agencies, hotels and other tourism segments to also implement sustainability initiatives. This is certainly an action that will lead to new successful projects," said the General Coordinator for Sustainability of the Ministry of Tourism, Isabel Barnasque.

Discussions
During the event, the president of Abremar, Marco Ferraz, presented a few numbers about the cruise industry. In 2015 alone the segment served 23.2 million passengers worldwide, and is responsible for generating 939,000 jobs across the world. "It is very important that we are here for this event. Travel agents often see cruises as little more than a source of adverts to display on their shelves, so it's important to be here today and share this news with this audience," he said.

For the Brazilian cruise season, which begins on November 21, the sector will have 381,000 beds and 108 routes on offer. Negotiations are also ongoing for the inclusion of four new destinations: Camboriú (SC), Florianópolis (SC), Guarapari (ES) and Vitoria (ES). Still according to data from Abremar, 82% of cruise passengers say they intend to return to the destination they visited for the in-land experience.

According to businessman Edmar Bull, president of ABAV, the event was extremely positive. "It was a pleasure to hold this event here at Casa Brasil, and I'm sure expectations were exceeded. We have to work hard to help Brazil increase domestic tourism, striving to make travellers choose not to leave the country and increasingly turn to our national beauties," he said.

Braztoa Sustainability Award
Since 2005, Braztoa has been investing in sustainability actions seeking to encourage and help its members to promote good practices in sustainable tourism, making the sector increasingly responsible and focused on social, economic and environmental aspects. This position also earned the entity a place as member of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization).

The Braztoa Sustainability Programme (PBS in the Portuguese acronym), created in 2011, proposes to demonstrate the benefits of incorporating sustainability into the management practices of companies by focusing on its socio-cultural, environmental and (especially) economic pillars.

Ministry of Tourism, with information from Braztoa