Brazil Adopts Sustainable Accommodation Standards

The Brazilian Association for Technical Standards (ABNT) has approved official standards for sustainability in accomodation. These standards were developed in the context of the Brazil Sustainable Tourism Programme (PCTS in Portuguese acronym), which is coordinated by the Instituto de Hospitalidade.

The Programme started at the end of 2002, with a study by ecotourism expert Amos Bien from Costa Rica on the status of tourism certification programs around the world. The initiative promotes adoption of sustainable practices in tourism through standards, training, information, certification and marketing.

The standards involved stakeholder workshops in 6 regions of Brazil, expert and public consultation. They were first published as a Instituto de Hospitalidade standard in 2004, but have now been adopted by the whole country.

This is just one of the faces of the Brazil Sustainable Tourism Programme. Much effort goes into helping destinations and local tourism suppliers to work on the quality and sustainability of their product. The Programme distributes market information, implementation guides and good practice manuals to participants and they can also be downloaded from the program website www.pcts.org.br http://www.pcts.org.br . The Programme has also trained local consultants by destination to work with local companies in short workshops over a course of seven months.

For those interested to know more about sustainable tourism and responsible travel companies in Brazil, an international website was created : http://www.sustainabletourismbrazil.org.br

Certification is voluntary and seeking certification is a marketing decision for individual companies. But there is great interest in Brazil as some of these numbers show :

more than 40.000 downloads of the standards have been made (since 2004

more than 800 companies have registered to receive more information;

more than 300 companies are participating in an online course;

more than a 100 companies are actively participating in the Program;

9 destinations are already partnering with the Program and the target is 30 destinations.

the Program is a partner and active participant in the Sustainable Tourism Network of the Americas and other international networks;

The Brazil Sustainable Tourism Program promotes adoption of sustainable practices in tourism through standards, training, information, certification and marketing. Coordinated by the Instituto de Hospitalidade (IH), it is designed to enhance the quality of services offered and the boost the competitiveness of small and medium-sized tourism-related business ventures. The program is supported by the Brazilian Export Promotion Agency (APEX), the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), the Ministry of Tourism and Small Business Support Service (SEBRAE) and partners with the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Tourism (CBTS), the Brazilian Hotel Association (ABIH), the Brazilian Bureau for Ecotourism & Brazilian Association for Adventure Travel Companies and works together with other stakeholders in tourism in Brazil.

Valere Tjolle