Project Community tourism - Brazil
Why we workTourism is strongly supported by the Federal Government of Brazil, as an economy-saving activity, by means of the promotion of large-scale private investment.
However, the mass tourism model that is encouraged often fails to respect local traditions and culture, going hand-in-hand with situations of social decline.
The clearest consequences of this phenomenon are: abandonment of the community of origin and consequent uprooting of families; increased child labour and sexual tourism.
The states of Ceará, Pernambuco and Bahia are the main human being trafficking routes, whose victims are very often the weakest, poorest bands of the population: women and children.
Our aimsTo organise a network of community tourism and therefore strengthen the independence and capacity of the coastal communities to face up to the negative effects of mass tourism, developing solidarity tourism alternatives: the programmes Intervita is looking to implement in order to attain these objectives, are the training of social and economic subjects and community mobilisation on these subjects, intervening in public policy.
How we workThe promotion of community tourism includes the development of seminars to sensitise and prevent sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and consumption, crime and abuse deriving from the so-called 'mass tourism'.
Specific courses will provide all the tools necessary to organise tourism services in compliance with the environment and traditional local culture, thereby giving women and young adults the possibility of running small community guest houses or public rooms, and proposing folklore initiatives with no intervention by foreign intermediaries.
Description of the projectThe project directly involves 394 women and young adults from 11 communities, with a total population of approximately 12,000 indirect beneficiaries.The Cearà project is implemented with the local partner, the Terramar Institute. This institute has been working since 2003, taking various actions to increase a solidarity network of community tourism. Terramar has organised various seminars on tourism in the Social Forum of north-east Brazil, as well as helping organise the International Seminar on Sustainable Tourism. For more information on the Community Tourism Network, please visit: www.tucum.org
 
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