Beyond the Amazon
and Rio de Janeiro, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, is a part of Brazil
few Americans know about or visit, and a group of transnational executive
MBA students from California is out to change that.
"Three hundred
thousand Americans a year come to Brazil, but few come this far," the
group was told by Gilmar Gnazeu, secretary of tourism for the state of Santa
Catarina. "With cultural diversity, hotels, and adventure tourism that
can use 550 kilometers of coastline, waterfalls and the only snow-peaked mountains
in Brazil, more Americans should know about us. It will be up to you to show
us the way."
Gnazeu heads Santa
Catarina Turismo, which has asked the Transnational Executive MBA program,
known as TEMBA, at California State University, Hayward to develop a strategy
that will bring more Americans to one of the most fascinating regions of Brazil.
The 13-month TEMBA
program is designed for mid-career and senior executives and is focused on
developing global business and leadership skills. In addition to attending
10 courses held once a month in the San Francisco Bay Area, participants go
on three overseas trips for classes and company visits and participate in
an international consulting project.
Client companies
pay a fee for the consulting project, conducted by teams of TEMBA participants
under the supervision of Cal State Hayward's international business professors.
Clients receive a comprehensive report and recommendations on their business
strategy.
The five-member
TEMBA consulting group working with Gnazeu calls itself Team Turismo, and
it met in December 2003 with a dozen members of the Santa Catarina Turismo
management group, known as SANTUR, in Florianópolis, the capital of
Santa Catarina.
"Santa Catarina
is an undiscovered gem," Team Turismo's James Grunke told the SANTUR
members. Grunke is director of studio markets at InterActual Technologies,
Inc. in San Jose, California. "Once Americans find out about it, there's
no reason tourism couldn't have a $100 million a year impact here. A competitive
analysis will give us a lot of information about how to get Americans to visit
this beautiful part of the world."
Santa Catarina is
a state of more than five million people, with its five principal airports
all about an hour's flight from São Paulo. The capital city of Florianópolis
is a popular vacation destination for Brazilians and Argentines for its shopping,
luxury hotels, beaches, surfing, and opportunities for whale and dolphin watching.
Its trademark suspension bridge is a smaller, more silver-colored version
of San Francisco's Golden Gate.
The state remains
a center of German culture in Brazil, reflecting immigration that began in
the early 19th century. The annual Oktoberfest in Blumenau is well-known in
South America. There also are families whose ancestors immigrated from Italy,
Poland, Russia and other parts of Europe and their cultures are celebrated.
Santa Catarina boasts
numerous waterfalls, national and state parks, a marine reserve, rivers for
whitewater rafting, and one of the largest theme parks in South America, complete
with roller coasters.
"We think these
are the kind of experiences and activities that create a market in Santa Catarina
for both short and long-term visits by Americans," the SANTUR group was
told by Team Turismo member Iris Ferreira, who runs his own company as a contractor
for Federal Express in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a native of the Brazilian
state of Goiás. "A lot of work will have to go into developing
relationships with U.S. tour operators and private organizations."
"Our initial
research has told us a lot," added Team Turismo member Richard Rudometkin,
director of business development at Quality Resource Associates in San Jose,
California. "For example, we're learning to understand the forces that
drive Americans to make the Caribbean the most popular choice, even though
there are other competitive regions."
Between 1999 and
2003, up to 400,000 Americans a year went to the Caribbean and up to 450,000
went to Mexico, SANTUR was told by Team Turismo member Anthony Leal. Leal
is president of the North America division of L&L International Inc.,
based in Green Valley, California, and has extensive experience in the airline
industry.
"Tourists going
to the Caribbean are among those who could be attracted to vacation in southern
Brazil," Leal said. "Part of the problem is getting the word out.
I lived and worked in São Paulo for seven months, but didn't even know
Santa Catarina existed. I am one of those Americans who would have visited
if I had known what you had to offer."
"We are aware
of these issues," Gnazeu told Team Turismo. "I used to live in Miami
and found that U.S. citizens there often confused Brazil with Argentina. They
seemed to think of it more as a region that had Carnaval, samba and soccer
all together."
"That's why
we need to give you a strategy for a marketing mix that educates people about
what makes Santa Catarina not only different from the Caribbean, but a different
Brazilian experience in itself," the SANTUR managers were told by Team
Turismo's Arjan Dhillon, director of Internet sales and marketing at Memory
Tech International in Richmond, California.
Team Turismo is
expected to give its final report to SANTUR in October 2004.
Kim Huggett is director
of public affairs for California State University, Hayward. He is a former
reporter for The Sacramento Union newspaper. He can be contacted
at khuggett@csuhayward.edu
or by calling the university at (510) 885-2032.
