Country: Brazil

Organization: Banco do Nordeste do Brasil S/A

Year the initiative began: 2000

Project Website: www.bnb.gov.br

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Corporate monolithic approach to tourism
• Main insight addressed: Market authenticity

What is the goal of your innovation?
Base on effective findings and diagnosis of the economic potentialities and endogenous assets, it’s possible to establish a sustainable form of development for tourist activity.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
The development work of tourism productive chain economic activities is complex because it involves several sectors and actors, yet its geographic and economic particularities and peculiarities is essential to establish the Tourism Economic Activities Work Project. A precise and efficient diagnosis grants certainty that the work will function correctly. The involvement of local community in the process and the prospecting of endogenous assets and the establishment of new routs and tourist trips improve the life quality of local communities and local economy. To create and form partnership with financial institutions, governance and education, in order to train and increase the knowledge level of actors and improve local potentialities is extremely important.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
The Tourism Economic Activities Work Project is innovative because it establishes partnerships between government actors, educational and financial institutions, as well as community associations creating harmony in the sector always seeking balance in the sector. The project’s structure tries to involve the maximum number of possible actors in the sense of organizing the productive chain which involves the activity, but also establishes that the technical and professional training improves the quality of assets, attractive sites and local actors.

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
The partnerships with NGOs, Financial and Educational Institutions, are extremely important in the development process of the Economic Activities Work, because they establish the pace and speed of the work’s results. The involvement of the community as main partner is of fundamental importance, because they will be the greatest beneficiaries with the project. The evolution is constant and solid, besides making economy dynamic, mainly in seasonality

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Evolution, significant in local economy, even during the low season, sustainable development of tourist activity and its links in the productive chain, social responsibility and environmental preserva

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
Tourism is the activity which most generates jobs in the world, mainly in Brazil. Research from IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research) shows that there was an addition of 235 thousand jobs in tourist sector activities between 2002 and 2006. The increase of 14.4% overcomes the country’s advance in IGB (Internal Gross Product) which grew in the same period around 14%. The detail is that from the total of 1.86 million people employed in the sector, the majority – 1.10 million or 59% - is in the informality and 768 thousand (41%) are properly registered. In the Northeast, from 151.1 thousand people employed, 53.7 thousand (35%) are in the informality. The sectors of culture/leisure, food and transport lead the informal employment. The greatest job growth rates in tourism is in the North (47%), followed by the South (23%) and the Northeast (17%). The Southeast region concentrates 44% of total work force in tourism in the country. The Northeast is in the second position, with 28% of occupations and the South is in the third position with 15%. In Pernambuco, until May 2005 there were 29.820 people employed in the sector, with highlight of the transport sector with 14.442 positions, followed by room and board, with 6.948 jobs and food with 3.545 occupations. Ipea’s research mapped tourist characteristics activities (ACTs) in 1.195 municipalities of the country in order to measure the sector’s labor market. They are: roam and board, travel agencies, transport, transport rental, food, culture and leisure. The sectors of transport, food and roam and board lead the employment composition in tourism. Transports leads with the generation of 747.448 positions in the country. The Northeast responds for 28% of occupation in ACTs, with 514.4 thousand occupied. ABIH (Brazilian Association of Hotel Industry) attributes the increase in workforce to new investments in the Northeast.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
The development indexes and local actors satisfaction shows the positive results from the Tourism Economic Activities Work Project, applying of modern and effective methods, the minimal module created to define what each link in the productive chain must have in order to become economically viable, enabling for actors to better manage and consequently increase the satisfaction of tourists

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
We work with a new methodology to approach the communities in order to enable economic growth of the activity through training aimed at qualifying local actors and promoting endogenous assets.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
From the economic viewpoint, the innovation called Tourism Economic Activities Work Project establishes parameters for the follow up of the development of activities which involve the links in tourism productive chain. We expect with this to minimize the negative impacts that seasonality leaves in the low season.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The initiative contemplates the organization of actors and the links of the activity’s productive chain and its geography. The objective is to give financial sustainability to economic activities which involve tourism productive chain. Through specific trainings for actors and the follow up of results achieved.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
We finance the actors and their equipments with FNE – Northeast Constitutional Fund, by means of the BNB financial agent, who makes available the resources to invest and pay the activities of the tourism productive chain links. The expenses are paid by BNB, consultants and specialists are partners, technicians in development are made available by the Bank of the Northeast of Brazil, in the figure of the Development Agent.

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
In order to expand our work, we are realigning our steps and setting up new follow up indexes, besides the ones available to evaluate the improvement in life quality or HDI – Human Development Index and, constantly parameterized, actions which contribute effectively in the reach of more expressive results in the development context.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
We have several barriers to be overcome, illiteracy, lack of schools with informatics equipment, lack of update and teacher qualification, indebted municipalities, little interest of municipal governors, lack of adequate fiscal incentives for developing the links in tourism productive chain. The origin of innovation came from the will to change the social milieu where we live, social difference, the distance between actors and financial institutions which finance projects and the ones of education train them to face the market. I am enthusiastic when it’s about development, it’s important to create personal effort to see effective results, satisfies local actors and the promotion of attractive sites and regional assets being explored with social responsibility

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
Who am I: Renner Ferreira, I am 44 years-old, Brazilian, born in Recife in the State of Pernambuco, currently I have courses in the development area, technical course in territorial development, Development Agent by the Bank of the Northeast, with a degree in Territorial Development – university extension course, offered by UFSC – Federal University of Santa Catarina, project analysis and management course.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
The Tourism Economic Activities Work Project is a project which aims to develop economic activities and the links in the productive chain. Being tourism the priority activity in the Project. We seek to elaborate a diagnosis to identify the bottlenecks and plan a line of approach to minimize the negative impacts, we offer incentives and support good practices which establish sustainable development with social responsibility and environmental preservation. The improvement in life quality measured by HDI, to parameterize the results and goals reached with the Project. The satisfaction of local actors, the democratization of information, through specific trainings directed to the organization of tourism productive chain.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
I heard about this challenge through the Internet, thought it was interesting and tried to show my view as a Development Agents, I work in tourism activity and this challenge came to contribute to form my opinion with respect to my work and Project. It was very interesting to participate with my ideas and innovations.

Contact Information
MR. Renner Ferreira
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Banco do Nordeste do Brasil S/A
Rua Juvina Francisca de Oliveira, 55
renner@bnb.gov.br