Partnership between the Terminal and Sebrae seeks to advise community tourism enterprises and encourage local entrepreneurship.
On Tuesday (13), the Tourism Network Caiçara was started, a partnership between the Paranaguá Container Terminal (TCP) and the Brazilian Service of Support to Micro and Small Enterprises in Paraná (Sebrae PR). The training, requested by the community itself, seeks to qualify community-based tourism enterprises in the locations of Eufrasina, São Miguel Island, Valadares Island, Piaçaguera, and Ponta de Ubá.
With an expected duration of 12 months, the project contemplates a schedule of activities offered free of charge to the residents, who work directly or indirectly with tourism in these regions.
These communities are part of the Rede Caiçara de Turismo, created in 2013 as a result of the Environmental Education Program developed by TCP. Formed by residents, the Network has the Terminal’s help in structuring tourism services, such as tours, trails, workshops and experiences that allow visitors to get to know the Paranaguá Bay, having contact with nature and the regional culture.
Besides the methodological support, Sebrae PR’s team will monitor each business individually. The goal is to encourage local entrepreneurship, sharing work experiences with community-based tourism carried out in other regions of Brazil, such as rural, riverside, quilombola, and indigenous areas, among others.
“Investing in restructuring and boosting grassroots tourism are ways to encourage the preservation of the Parnanguara culture, impacting the local economy and improving the population’s self-esteem. The idea is for them to continue as independent actors of tourism on the coast”, says TCP’s institutional manager, Allan Chiang.
For the manager of the eastern regional office of Sebrae PR, Weliton Monteiro Perdomo, “this work in partnership between TCP and Sebrae, focusing on community-based tourism, aims to bring knowledge and information, generating better opportunities, more income, more jobs, and better quality of life for the population”.
Among the course participants are the owners of a family lodging in Eufrasina Island, Luciane Aparecida and Isaías Rodrigues, who commented on the advantages of the classes. “We will learn how to do outreach and this will be very important. Besides, we are going to improve our service to present the island to the guests,” says Isaías.
Luciane complements that “we are making partnerships with sailboats, for example, so that tourists can go out all day long. We also have a partnership with a sport fishing company that picks up visitors at the pousada. The idea is that tourists come and have lots of things to do and, as a result, refer more clients to us.
25 years of socio-environmental impact
Throughout its 25 years of existence, TCP has been generating social, environmental and economic impact on the life of the city on the Paraná coast. The company has already benefited more than 40 social projects through Tax Incentive Laws, besides acting in the continuity of more than 60 actions promoted in partnership with local entities.
