This year, from November 10 to 21, Belém will host the world's most important environmental event, the 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP 30. The city is expected to receive around 50,000 visitors, including delegations from countries, scientists, business sectors, non-governmental organizations, activists and representatives of civil society in general.
Welcoming this wide range of visitors has required a great deal of preparation on the part of the city and the state governments in the most diverse areas. Engineering works are taking over the capital, from the construction of the space that will host the event, the City Park, hotels erection or renovation to accommodate the participants, to sanitation interventions, urban mobility systems paving and improvements.
One of the prioritized sectors is tourism. Entrepreneurs in the area are organizing themselves to receive a large influx of visitors, who will also be looking forward to enjoying tourist experiences in the heart of the Amazon, in addition to climate discussions.
COMBU ISLAND
One of the entrepreneurs working in new projects for the COP 30 period is Izete Costa, affectionately known as Dona Nena, who owns the enterprise Casa do Chocolate Filha do Combu on the Combu island in Belém. As well as chocolates made with cocoa produced on the island itself, in an agroforestry system, Dona Nena offers gastronomic tourist experiences and visits to her cocoa forest. By the time of the Conference, she intends to expand the range of services on offer.
“We've already expanded some of our spaces, not only for the COP, but also because we wanted to set up a cafeteria, which is already running. We've also set up a place to receive groups for tourism experiences, but we also want to try to offer at least two rooms for rent, increase, a little more, the space of our factory and store and be able to handle the flow of people, as well as creating a space to receive the delegations from the countries. In fact, in 2024 we have already received representatives from Nations to visit our space and bring their delegations,” she explains.
Clayson Chagas, an entrepreneur from the nautical sector, is also adapting his infrastructure to the large number of visitors expected to come to Combu Island, a great exponent of the tourism industry in Belém, a place where you can get in touch with the forest and the riverside culture just a few minutes by boat from the mainland of the capital. Chagas has not only increased the number of boats, but has also invested in new models.
“The expected audience for COP is those who come to sleep on the boat, so they want a boat with a cabin, hotel facilities, breakfast and meals. We're adapting it for both, ten or even 20 cabins, and we've already closed a deal with a catering company. So, it's going to be boat rental, tourism, complete accommodation, room service and even a car rental service,” he says.
In addition, the businessman invests in qualifying he company's workforce, encouraging them to take part in training. “We need to have a trained (boat) pilot to welcome the client, able to explain the holes, the tourist attractions and to speak English. Many bodies, whether private or public, are offering these courses and we take pilots, guides and pilot's assistants,” says Chagas.
CITY HALL
André Godinho, executive secretary for COP 30 at Belém City Hall, believes that Belém's islands, especially Combu, have a natural vocation and great potential for growth in the area of tourism, but warns that a careful look is needed at how this will be developed. “We need to look at precautions and ways of implementing these operations from the point of view of sanitation, waste collection, destination of waste from the restaurants that are on the other side of the river, so that there is respect, especially for the communities that are already there. This tourist exploitation of the islands is very positive, but the city council is going to monitor in order for occupation to done in a sustainable way, not only environmentally, but also economically for those who are there and occupy these spaces,” he said.
According to Godinho, the Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas (Sebrae) [Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service] in Pará will have an agency on Combu Island for training, including raising awareness about the responsible use of the areas.
National Tourism School promotes training
Currently, a large number of institutional initiatives, such as those taken by Sebrae Pará, are promoting workforce training for the tourism sector with a view to COP 30. And the actions are not restricted to Belém: the expectation is that other locations in Pará also receive visitors, in the wake of the Conference coming to Belém.
One of the initiatives in this direction was the creation of the first Escola Nacional do Turismo [National Tourism School] in the capital of Pará, a partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and the Federal Institute of Pará (IFPA). Launched last November, the school falls back on funding from the Ministry and offers courses run by the IFPA in four hub cities: Belém, Santarém, Vigia and Bragança.
Courses such as “Business Management for Tourism”, “Environmental Education and Sustainability for Tourism”, “Governance for Family Lodging”, “Quality of Service for Tourists on the Islands”, “Event Organizer”, “Chambermaid”, “Regional Itinerary Designer” and “Tourist Attraction Driver”, as well as foreign languages such as English and Spanish, aim to strengthen tourism in the state, not only during COP 30, but also aiming to boost Pará as a tourist destination after the event.
So far, 1,043 students have enrolled in two cycles of courses. By December, there will be five more cycles, with a total of 4,700 vacancies. The funding from the Ministry of Tourism, R$4.5 million, to be received by the end of the year, will be used to set up classrooms, laboratories, administrative spaces and an industrial kitchen, as well as monthly stipends of R$200 for the participating students.
Environmental guidelines guide classes
According to Professor Priscila Farias, coordinator of the National School of Tourism at IFPA, the proposal seeks to make actions more widespread. In addition to training in the four hub municipalities, there are already classes in Alter do Chão, in the Tapajós National Forest, in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve and in the Moruí community, in Lago Grande, in the Santarém region. There have also been classes in Cotijuba, Combu Island and Outeiro and there are plans to offer them in Mosqueiro, in Belém. There will also be English and tourist attraction guide courses for a quilombola community in Salvaterra.
“The prospect is that we will have people trained with excellence in various parts of the state. The expectation is that this won't stop here, so the tendency is for this training to become more and more established in the state,” says the coordinator.
According to Priscila, the course syllabuses were designed with sustainability in mind. “There is always this reflection on environmental guidelines, such as how to organize a more sustainable event, with the reuse of materials. Even the chambermaid course can raise awareness about wasting water and the conscious use of resources. Our teachers are already sensitive to environmental issues and will work on this in the scope of each course, no matter what it is. Responsible tourism is, in our opinion, the great key to tourism today. And it involves not only environmental issues, but also respect for culture, ethnic groups and the region. This has to be encouraged in order to get away from the idea of mass tourism, which destroys and doesn't provide an experience. Responsible tourism provides the quality of the visitor's experience and the preservation of cultural, natural, environmental and social resources,” she ponders.
Sebrae's agency operates along four axes
Sebrae Pará is making extra efforts towards having small businesses qualified and ready for COP 30, such as on Combu Island. Since the end of 2023, the institution has set up the Sebrae COP 30 Agency, to concentrate support work for the conference in one place, in four areas: Hospitality, Mobility, Food and Beverage and Creative Economy.
In the Hospitality area, Sebrae is investing in qualifying entrepreneurs in the lodging segment, one of the most sought-after for the conference, considering the shortage of beds in Belém to receive the 50,000 visitors expected. In addition to those who already work in the area, there are opportunities for those who want to become hosts through Airbnb, an online platform for renting properties or rooms by the season. A partnership between Sebrae and Airbnb was signed last August to prepare property owners to receive visitors. The training is carried out by ambassadors from the platform.
“There will be 20 courses offered until December 2025 and 3,000 qualified people. It's worth noting that since August 2024, when the partnership with Airbnb began, 35 classes have been offered, with 1,815 entrepreneurs trained. Since the partnership was launched, the number of properties in Pará registered on the platform, which was 750, has risen to around 4,500,” says Rubens Magno, managing director of Sebrae in Pará.
In addition to the Airbnb-related training, Sebrae is promoting other training courses in the tourism sector, such as “Excellent service”, “Foreign language” and “Sustainability in tourism”, all specific to Belém. By the end of 2024, 632 people had been trained. “With these trainings, our intention is to prepare our clients to serve and welcome the tourists who will arrive here for the climatic event, so that they have an excellent experience, stay a little longer and return later,” says Magno.
The manager emphasizes that all the training courses are in some way linked to sustainable tourism. “From small actions such as not using plastic on Experience Tour trips to good sustainability practices, such as biodigesters and selective waste collection, are encouraged and highlighted in our consultancies. COP 30 is a unique opportunity for small businesses in Pará to become aware of the importance of sustainability and the fact that the Amazon is in the spotlight and plays a crucial role in regulating the global climate,” he emphasizes.
LEGACY
Marciliane Brígida, owner of Restô da Márcia, on Combu Island, is one of the entrepreneurs supported by Sebrae. The partnership has existed for ten years, but intensified in the pre-COP period. “They helped put in the hydroponic vegetable garden here, to make the menu in English, Spanish and Portuguese and with the training of the staff, who have already undergone courses in food handling, customer service, hospitality and now they're going to take up English,” she says.
For Marciliane, the opportunities generated by COP 30 will be long-lasting. “It's eleven days of COP, but Sebrae is giving us the opportunity to keep this experience forever, of providing excellent services. It will be something for life”.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The production of Liberal Amazon is one of the initiatives of the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Liberal Group and the Federal University of Pará. The articles involving research from UFPA are revised by professionals from the academy. The translation of the content is also provided by the agreement, through the research project ET-Multi: Translation Studies: multifaces and multisemiotics.
