Interview with Paulo Renato Fonseca Junior, President of Adetur Metropolitana

What are the challenges for tourism in Espírito Santo and how it is going so far?

Fortunately, our state is in a good place for tourism. The state is near the three main states, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, where the tourists come from. On the other hand, that is also a problem, because we cannot show the tourists everything that the state has to offer them. The good point is that there are many events, fairs, conferences happening here. These events are mainly in Vitória and Vila Velha, as these are the big cities. I would even say that most of the times our hotels are full of people. Because we are receiving more tourists there are companies building, therefore soon we will have more hotels in Espírito Santo. There are always different conferences, fairs and meetings here, which is very good for the economy.

We are working to bring more tourists looking for entertainment, because we think that we have many things to offer the tourists. Since 2008 we are trying to show the state to Brazil and the world, just last year we offered courses to 7000 travel agents, teaching them more about Espírito Santo and what the state has to offer. The idea is to use everything we can to show the state to the tourists, that is why we are always advertising in blogs, magazines and working with the press as our partners to show this amazing state. Because we have a limited budget, we have to be careful and spend it wisely. The problem is that we need more resources than what we have now, to show Espírito Santo to the tourists you need to reach them, to use every way to communicate with them and invite them to the state.

It is a daily challenge, we need to keep track of what is happening, we need to use surveys, researches, to identify and target the tourists. As we know that mainly the tourists from the southeast part of Brazil will come to Espírito Santo, we always try to keep them informed of the events and attractions we can offer them. We need to attract more tourists from the south, Bahia and Distrito Federal, for that we need to keep working hard and create new interesting events.

We have a project to attract tourists, we go to the states, make contact with travel agents and travel agencies, the press and other people, and we offer them a dinner, it is a meeting with a dinner called in Portuguese "Espírito Santo em cores e sabores". We use a local artist to show the things that we have, we show them our gastronomy, our mountains, our beaches... Together with it, there is also another project where we are offering prizes to the agents if they can bring the tourists to Espírito Santo. This project has several rules, but the agent that won last year received a brand new car. These things are helping to increase the number of people coming to Espírito santo, but we understand that we must keep working and trying to find mechanisms to show the state to the world.

The project I told you about is a success, but it is a success only because we are working as a team, we are not just offering prizes to the agents. We created a website in order to monitor where the tourists are staying, where they are eating, with whom they are flying... Because with this information we can ask these companies for our help, if they are part of our team they will make more money and we will have more tourists.

For instance, we managed to increase the number of tourists in our hotels, from 25% to 65% for the New Year celebrations with a very interesting project. We contracted a Chinese company to create a show with fireworks on our beaches, and offered several attractions like the tourists can find in other places. Before that Espírito Santo was not a place where the tourists would come for the New Year celebrations, however we will keep working to attract more people each year. We have also the Carnaval in Vitória, it is a very beautiful event and 5 years ago, we started to promote this party. The Carnaval in Vitória starts a week before the Carnaval in other parts of Brazil so we are working to show that we have a Carnaval as beautiful as in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

We want to bring international tourists to Espírito Santo, but for that, we need to spend money and we are doing that. However, there are things we can do to bring tourists from the other states of Brazil and from other parts of our own state to the main sights. There is a lovely place in Espírito Santo called Pedra Azul, where you can visit our mountains. Most of the tourists are from other parts of Espírito Santo, people that are coming to this sight to spend a weekend and are helping the local economy.

That is a very interesting project, because during the week, from Monday to Friday there are many tourists business people that are in the hotels, spending money, however during the weekend these tourists will go. The challenge therefore is to find attractions to bring our own people from their small cities to these hotels. We are creating a partnership with an air company and our hotels to offer a different product for the travel agencies. Everybody will work together to offer a different price during the weekends, so the tourist can come on Friday and stay the weekend paying less than usually.

Other important points are the agrotourism and the artisanship. We have partnerships with SEBRAE and other institutes that are helping small companies and family business, giving them all the necessary support and information.

Before, these people were producing, but it was difficult, almost impossible to show the products that they had to offer. Therefore, our mission on Adetur is to find ways to show these products. We have created committees to help the companies to offer good products, which can be sold. For instance, we have on Adetur the artisanship committee, this committee has rules and laws for the products and with that, we can monitor the quality of what we are selling. When we are showing the state and its products, we will use these products, because with that we know that they have good quality and these people will make more money, if they follow the rules.

When we participate on fairs, conferences and shows, we always bring their products, because with that they have a better opportunity of selling more. They need to increase sales, but they also need the support to offer products with good quality. There are many things at stake and they understand that courses and information are important for quality.

We have also the guide committees, to offer language courses, to qualify the guides that are working with the tourists. We need more tourists and they are coming, but we also want to give them the necessary structure.

What are you doing to attract more investors and what does the state has to offer them?

Espírito Santo has several places where companies can build. For instance, if we could have an important resort here, it would attract even more tourists. We are near 3 big states in Brazil and there are people coming here, however with that we would have even more to offer them, as the tourists will go where they can find good places to stay. We are 45 minutes by plane from Minas Gerais and it takes only 01:10 from Vitória to São Paulo, which makes easy for the tourists to travel here. We have a project to receive and offer attractions to cruises, and that is an important investment for companies interested in working in Espírito Santo. There is also the Convention Center, it will be near the airport in Vitória and will offer opportunities for private companies as it will attract tourists. The government is already receiving contact from investors, but we want more investment as we understand that together we can find solutions for the state, for the economy. The investors will receive help from the state, they will benefit from a program offering tax reduction, the government will do everything to help the investors and we know that this state has many good opportunities for people and companies interested in a worthwhile investment. In Linhares, which is in the north of Espírito Santo, there are several opportunities for investors, it is a part of our state that is already attracting many people, because of the oil, because it is a lovely place. Various hotels are being built there and it is a part of the state that is growing.

Our mountains are very beautiful, but we only have one hotel, which was selected for FIFA. This hotel with 90 other places will be offered to the teams. It is a very interesting region and it has many available places for investors, as they will not find the competition they would find in other places. The teams will select where they want to stay, but for us it is important to be part of it, as it will show this region to the world with many important results. We already received a Chinese delegation, the delegation from England is interested, showing that indeed it is a good place for their teams.

The Women's artistic gymnastics training centre is here, it is important as there are championships with people coming from many countries and during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro the teams will stay here as it is a place that they already know. As I said, as we are near these important states, it is easy for people to travel from Espírito Santo and if we can offer different attractions they will come and stay here. Because we are near these states a team can go to Rio de Janeiro in less than one hour and with security, which many people are worried about nowadays. In Espírito Santo we are investing in security because that is important for our people and for the tourists as well.

The tourists love our gastronomy, Espírito Santo has many things to offer and our gastronomy is one of them. As more than 70% of our population is from Italian descendents, our gastronomy is a mixture of the Brazilian and European cultures. In our restaurants, we use clay pots, which make the food very different and delicious. That heritage is important for the state and the gastronomy brings tourists to Espírito Santo. For more than 500 years our people have been using clay pots and the tourists can find it everywhere in Espírito Santo. We will have a very important event in august called "Prato da boa vizinhança" where Chefs come from all over the country to create a unique dish and that will attract tourists from several countries. The gastronomy is very important for the tourism industry in Espírito Santo, we have several local options and the tourists love them. Our job is to show our gastronomy and everything else to more people and that is what we are trying to do.

There are always people coming to Espírito Santo looking for treatments, tourists interested in plastic surgery. We have a Hospital called "Vitória Apart" which is a model for several states, it is a unique hospital that is attracting Brazilian and international tourists. This hospital is a "condominium hospital", a place where the doctors have their offices, but it is a condominium.

Can you tell us more about Adetur and its history?

Adetur was created six years ago. At first, it was part of the government, but we decided that it would be more effective as a private partner for the government. We participate with the government to help the tourism industry, but we are independent and can make our own decisions. We work with the cities and the states to promote the tourism and its differences in each part of Espírito Santo. We had to identify the tourists and the sights, as we understand that each place will receive different people. There are parts of the state where you will receive local tourists, people from other cities that will come to that area, and therefore we need to promote the city for our own population. On the other hand, there are places, which will attract tourists from other states and countries. The idea is to help the places where the local tourists will visit and create a better structure for them to keep investing and improving.

There are seven cities with sights that are attracting most of the tourists and for these cities, we created a portal to show what each one of them has to offer. The important thing is to improve the structure and at the same time help the other cities to create attractions and with it receive more tourists. Our role is to help the cities to develop structures to receive the tourists, we are showing the state to the tourism industry in several ways. To understand how to show the state we had to separate each part of it in a different region, because then we can offer the right place to the right public. We have 10 regions in Espírito Santo. We identified 3 of them as markets for the international tourists, they are "Verde das Águas" in the north, "Rota do sol e da Moqueca", in Vitória and the cities around it and what is called in portuguese "Região das Montanhas", where we have our beautiful mountains, just one hour away by car from Vitória. These 3 regions at the moment are the main places where the tourists are visiting and we are always promoting them in the other states and internationally. For the other regions we have a different approach, we promote them in the other cities of Espírito Santo.

What are you expecting for the next few years and what are your hopes for the tourism in Espírito santo?

Many things will happen in the next years in Espírito Santo. We are building new structures, promoting the state and working hard to bring tourists to the state. With all these projects, we will increase the number of people visiting our cities. I expect a growth of 60-70% for the next 5 years. That is going to happen because we will have more hotels, we will have the convention centre, and we will improve the airport. With more hotels, we will have more rooms for tourists, with several options for them. We will probably double the number of rooms for the next 5 or 6 years. The projects we are creating will bring the tourists to Espírito Santo and together with the investors we will offer these tourists a good stay.