Vip Tour Group is an active member of the Brazil Tour Operators Association.

The BTOA has proudly launched it's new BTOA Cares Program to support NGO’s in Brazil that promote social change and sustainable tourism. They have chosen Estrela Brasil in Salvador to be the first recipient of our new BTOA Scholarship called the “BTOA Cares Community Development Tourism Grant”.

Estrela Brasil has been developing community tours in partnership with local grass-roots initiatives, improving livelihoods of Afro-Brazilian youth & women and ensuring balanced cultural exchange between tourists & locals. Since Salvador is a destination that all our members actively sell, this was a perfect fit for us to start a mentor and support relationship with Julia and Estrela. These local teens will now take English classes and on-site tourism training to becoming guides for communities in which our member companies already do business.

Follow up:

Here are the details of what Estrela does and how our BTOA Cares Community Development Tourism Grant will be managed:

General Project AimsGenerate community tours in partnership with local grass-roots initiatives, improving livelihoods of Afro-Brazilian youth & women and ensuring balanced cultural exchange between tourists & locals:

1. Create sustainable “community tour” models in Salvador, within a bilingual context;
2. Support Bahian grass-roots initiatives in developing their capacity to benefit from tourism;
3. Increase international visitors’ understanding of southern communities.
4. Promote community-based tourism in Bahia on the British and international tourism market.

Specific Project Aims (in partnership with BTOA)

Build the capacity of five local community initiatives, via –
- Formal training with 12 young tour guides (aged 16 – 25)
- Skills development with 20 young tour guides (aged 16 – 25)
- Training at community level with 4 communities (10 youth & leaders per community)

Summary Intro

Estrela is developing a community tourism initiative in Salvador (NE Brazil), to enable international visitors to gain an understanding of daily community and cultural life in Salvador by meeting its people, enjoying its riches and understanding its reality, whilst developing the capacity of and creating opportunity for local marginalized groups, in particular afro-Brazilian youth and women. The project is benefiting local community groups who work with families, children and young people at risk in periphery and shanty areas of the city, by:
- Offering training and work opportunities for their young people as community / tour guides;
- Structuring the groups to enable them to receive visitors & engage in international exchange;
- Generating income for the community groups from the tours.

Local Needs
Bahia suffers from limited tourist experiences of colonial historical architecture, exclusive carnival and luxury beach resorts, with little investment to facilitate community-based tourism, more broad-based growth and community ownership. Bahia is one of the top regions in Latin America for sexual tourism, with high levels of exploitation of women and children. Visitors from the north hold a distorted view of 3rd world countries and their people, with an alienated vision, misunderstanding and exaggerated fear of poverty. As formally agreed at Destinations2006 (World Tourism Forum), tourists need to come into contact with local communities.

Specific Project Activities (August 2009 – December 2010)
This 18 month project will set up a training program in partnership with five grass-roots initiatives, training up to twelve youth guides formally, and up to twenty informally, thus integrating the two, and formalising the development of community tourism in Salvador.
ACTIONS:

Embratur Tourist Guide Official Training
1 x 8 month formal training course for tourist guides, for 4 young guides, from participating community groups (2008 – 2009). N.B. As the selection process is very competitive, in the case of non-selection of any of our guides, the remaining amount from this budget would be re-invested into the collective training to boost the level of knowledge and skills of all the guides and their communities.

English Language Training
01 semester of formal English language training, for 8 young guides, from participating community groups – elementary level at ACBEU / Cultura Inglesa - July – December 2009.

Collective Development Workshops
08 bi-monthly training & development workshops with 20 young guides will be held, including guest speakers, laboratories and general skill development. These sessions will also focus on multiplying skills within each participating community group, to peers and key stakeholders.
July - September – December 2009 & March – June – September – December 2010
(September 2009 session will be dedicated to the official project launch ceremony).

BTOA Cares will continue to donate a portion of our revenue to supporting existing programs that promote social change, responsible and sustainable tourism in Brazil. Board member Mike Eiseman says... "The BTOA is keeping up with a changing world and efforts for supporting sustainable tourism. We are dedicated to increasing life chances, and improving the quality of life, for people in marginalized communities in Brazil."

Click here to see the BTOA Cares Program webpage