The opening ceremony of the 42nd ABAV International Tourism Expo was held last night (September 23) at Teatro Renault in São Paulo’s downtown region. The ceremony marked the official opening of the leading tourism event in the Southern Hemisphere, which will begin today (24th) in the Anhembi Exhibition Pavillion, in São Paulo.

The ceremony was attended by authorities representing the industry in all its segments, including the Brazilian Tourism Minister Vinicius Lages. The chairman of ABAV Nacional Antonio Azevedo reiterated the importance of travel agencies for the sale of tailored tourist products and services, and reinforced the importance of Law 12,974/2014, passed in the first half of this year and that regulates the activities of travel agencies. “This achievement will be complete when we manage to solve all aspects regarding joint liability,” Azevedo said, referring to the vetoes of president Dilma Rousseff mostly regarding the Consumer Protection Code. Azevedo also said that a campaign to value travel agents will be introduced next Saturday, 27, during the National Board meeting that will gather the executive directors of ABAV Nacional and of State ABAVs. The participation of Minister Vinicius Lages and Marcio Favilla, CEO for Competitiveness, Foreign Affairs and Partnerships of the World Tourism Organization will favor the debate regarding the growth and strengthening of the travel industry, including topics like an agenda for professional qualification, reorganizing the capacity to develop and structure tourist destinations, adding tourism to the country’s innovation agenda, and building a national tourism calendar to be permanently updated.

In his opening speech, the chairman of ABAV Nacional also mentioned the decision of the Planning, Budget, and Management Ministry of suspending the purchase of air tickets through a travel agency, and said that the ABAV Nacional and ABAV-DF have been working to have this decision changed.

Authorities attending the event

During the opening ceremony, Minister Vinicius Lages congratulated the work ABAV Expo has performed during the last 60 years, and said ABAV Expo “is not only a business event, but one of networking and recognition.” By declaring he will attend the five days of the event, Lages reiterated the importance of “being close to the leading actors of the Brazilian tourism market not only to understand, but also to set joint strategies for the future.”

The participation of the Tourism Ministry in the event directly relates to the importance of better knowing the tourist and the tourist destinations and to the imminent need to promote Brazil, more efficiently encouraging domestic tourism, which has gained strength with the rise in the population income in the last 12 years. In this sense, the #partiuBrasil campaign gains strength; the campaign aims to promote the country’s tourist attractions so as to favor the passenger turnover in the national territory.

The campaign was welcomed by Marcio Favilla, a representative of the UNWTO. The executive emphasized the need to encourage domestic tourism, saying it is the “basis for international tourism growth.” According to Favilla, “businesses that will be done at ABAV Expo will certainly contribute a lot to tourism in Brazil.” Claudio Magnavita, Tourism Secretary of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the destination sponsoring ABAV Expo, said that the innovations of the 42nd ABAV Expo, like the sale of promotional packaged tours on the weekend (September 27 and 28), and the event’s consolidation as a place for doing businesses (like the Abracorp Corporate Island and the 42nd Braztoa Trade Meeting), make this event a decisive one in the history of tourism in Brazil. “The ABAV event is paramount for Brazil’s growth and history,” he said.

The National Confederation of Goods, Services and Tourism Trading (CNC) also agrees that strengthening the industry’s production chain as a whole is key. According to the chairman of the entity’s Tourism Board Alexandre Sampaio, ABAV Expo is a welcomed event because “tourism tends to occupy its rightful place in the national economy by being transversal.” According to Sampaio, the CNC has been investing in a process to engage professionals of this industry - in all, over 14 million services have been provided in the social area.