Projeto Bagagem ^Featured

Original project description

Projeto Bagagem promotes environmentally sustainable community development through community-based tourism and youth empowerment. Travel itineraries feature successful local development initiatives where travellers can meet and interact with host communities in a unique way.
Projeto Bagagem, a Brazilian NGO, aims to improve the livelihoods of low-income Brazilian communities by setting up and developing local community-based tourism. The initiative actively involves the local communities to develop travel itineraries that feature successful local development initiatives. They are, even at this early stage, already proving to be a source of additional income for the local communities and an inspiring experience for the visitors.
Meeting and interacting with host communities is the principal travelling experience. To reinforce local participation capacity, Projeto Bagagem offers a 2-year programme to local youth, enabling them to own and manage tourism activities in their area. Networking between destinations, partner travel agencies and travellers is also enhanced through the project. Supplying travellers with environmentally relevant information, material and guidance raises their awareness and limits the environmental impact of the tours. Main activities:
• building a network of community tourism destinations
• building a network of partner travel agencies and organisations which are committed to the local communities
• creating a network of knowledge: developing materials on methodologies and practices to support other communities and NGOs starting community-based tourism

Current project updates

Last updated: 2 September 2009

Winning the SEED Award helped to expand Projeto Bagagem’s business. Through Ashoka, one of the SEED Associates, the partnership got external assistance from McKinsey during 9 months in 2008 and 2009 on developing its business plan for the next 4 years. The main goal: “make Brazil an international reference in community-based tourism”. To reach this goal a Projeto Bagagem and its partners are planning to create 50 new community-based tourism routes by 2013 as well as expand their commercialization strategy.
Projeto Bagagem has also joined with 7 new partner NGOs and created 6 new Community Based Tourism (CBT) packages until 2009.

2008 was also a year of careful planning and scale-up preparation to devise a common strategy with the TURISOL network, a community-base tourism development network in Brazil:
• Projeto Bagagem hopes to open a national tour operation by the end of 2009.
• The project has won recognition from the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism as one of the best 25 community tourism projects (from 520) and contributed to launching the first call for CBT proposals from the Ministry of Tourism in Brazil.
• Finally, Projeto Bagagem welcomed two new team members in 2008 in order to scale up sales and marketing this coming year.

With Projeto Bagagem’s help, some communities are already benefitting from the new tourism income. In time this should help to counter migration to the cities, and heighten awareness of the value of sustainable management of natural resources.

Growth plans description

• To replicate this approach elsewhere, increasing the number of destinations and itineraries
• To develop international sales and marketing channels
• To strengthen ownership of tourism activities

Current Needs

To ensure the long-term future of this innovative, locally led partnership for sustainable development, additional contacts, financing opportunities, and communication and marketing networks are important. In particular, the following support is needed:
• help with the development of national and international sales and marketing channels
• support for the commercialisation manager
• identify resources for further development of business and financial planning
• connecting the initiative with sustainable tourism experts and policy makers in Brazil and elsewhere
• matchmaking with relevant commercial or funding partners.

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