Caio Carvalho: why a Ministry of Tourism? – 07/07/2023 – Tourism

After seven years in the presidency of Embratur that culminated in his appointment as Minister of Tourism, in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB), the lawyer Caio Luiz de Carvalho had sworn that he would never return to a position in any government.

However, in 2005, he assumed the presidency of SPTuris, the São Paulo tourism promotion agency, where he would remain for another seven years.

When he finally left the public scene, devoting himself to classes at Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and more recently to the Arte 1 channel, on the Bandeirantes network, he maintains firm the thesis he defended —without any success, it is worth mentioning— in all the years of his management in the area: “There is no reason for there to be a Ministry of Tourism”. And he himself adds, resigned: “Except, of course, the political need to create positions”.

For Carvalho, what may sound like a contradiction is, in practice, the essence of his vision of the business called tourism, which between January and April of this year alone, according to Embratur figures, accounted for foreign exchange of R$ 10 billion from the pockets of 2.7 million foreign visitors.

And it was about the potential of this sector that he spoke to Sheetamid the news of the imminent replacement of the current minister of the area, Daniela Carneiro, by deputy Celso Sabino (União Brasil-PA).

Why mr. Do you defend the thesis that the country does not need a Ministry of Tourism?
Technically, what the country needs is a direct administration that thinks and creates public policies. This can be done by a national secretariat, for example, but it is important that it be within a ministry of the economic area, that thinks about the economy as a whole and works together with Embratur, which is the promotion agency for the sector, not there is no reason for us to have a Ministry of Tourism. We are talking here about a very important activity for the trade balance.

I have always defended that receptive tourism is a great export product, because when the tourist comes here, he brings foreign currency, consumes Brazilian products here, generates jobs and even pays his own freight. It’s a matter of economics, and the economic area has to understand that.

Tourism is an industry that processes natural, cultural and human resources in a planned way. When the tourist realizes his dreams, the entrepreneur earns money, and in a country like ours it is tourism that will precisely promote local sustainable development with more property. And it is important to remember that for every dollar invested in attracting tourists to the country, we account for a return of US$ 6.

So, is the existence of a Ministry of Tourism only justified as a way of creating positions?
I know what government is like, any government, I’ve been a government and I know that it’s important to create positions because of political bargains. But we have to separate things, because tourism is a serious thing and the discussion must go far beyond who will or will not be a minister, this does not contribute to anything for the business.

And how do you see the evolution of the sector since Mr. left the ministry?
In 2003, we had 5.370 million tourists entering the country. In the first Lula government, the minister of the portfolio, Walfrido Mares Guia, announced that we would jump to 10 million in three years. But 20 years later we haven’t even reached 6 million.

What mr. attribute this stagnation?
One of the main reasons is the displacement factor. It is necessary to understand that for the tourist to get somewhere, he will have to move and that for that he needs means of transport. One of Brazil’s problems, in addition to its territorial extension, is its distance from the major international tourist centers and the fact that we no longer have airlines like we had in the past, with large networks, a Varig, a Vasp, which could work abroad. receptive tourism and bringing people here. Today, Gol and Azul are doing a good job, but they don’t achieve enough scale to motivate the big operators to make reservations in a significant amount.

Why that?
When you are going to sell the country abroad, the operator wants to know how many places he will have to transport his customers. He doesn’t just want ten, 11 seats on a flight, it’s not worth it. And, as demand is heated, there are fewer flights and those available are full of Brazilians who go abroad and come back, there are few seats left to offer operators. So, we cannot count on those tourists who come from far away, nor can we think that we have the potential to receive 30 million on the well-worn argument that France receives 80 million tourists a year.

But it’s not true?
Yes, they do, but of those 80 million, between 75% and 76% arrive by car, bus, even by bicycle or on foot, from neighboring countries. In the case of Mexico, which receives 19 million tourists, 92% are Americans. Put Bahia in France’s place, and it will receive those millions as well.

What’s the way out then?
We return to the question of displacement. An important fact to consider is that there are 18 million tourists from South American countries who travel to countries in the northern hemisphere each year. Now, we have the opportunity to take advantage of President Lula’s (PT) special look at South America to invest in promoting Brazil among our neighbors and attracting them here.

The World Tourism Organization points out that 76% of the world’s flights are up to six hours long – people prioritize shorter distances. So, if we already missed the opportunity to retain these neighbors in the World Cup and the Olympic Games, and that was a great waste, now that we are no longer the outcasts of the world, as in the last four years of a disastrous government, we have to work this potential to attract tourists from the neighborhood. It doesn’t hurt to remember that, of the 5 million or so that entered Brazil under our management, almost half were Argentines.

And how do you see the situation at Embratur, which does not have its own source of funds?
This has always been a problem, the agency was created without defining a source of funds. There are some possible solutions, like the one we created in the work I did in Peru with the promotion agency there. There we established a tax of US$ 26 that each tourist leaves when leaving the country. When I was at Embratur, we were already discussing the creation of a fee, it would be something like US$ 10 of the boarding fee for each tourist, which would create a promotion fund. But you mess with interests and, of course, it was never implemented.

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X-ray
Professor at FGV-SP. He was executive president of the World Tourism Organization, Minister of Sports and Tourism for FHC, and president of Embratur.