Skift Take
Brazil is utilizing privatization to grow its tourism infrastructure. On privatizing sections of beachfront, it runs the risk of building a tourism industry that can’t sustain itself if it doesn’t take into account the input of local communities.
A bill being considered in the Brazilian legislature with a controversial provision to dedicate portions of Brazil’s beaches to private sector tourism development is being met with some resistance. The controversy represents a potential roadblock for a privatization movement in South America’s largest country to grow its tourism industry.
Under Brazil’s constitution, all beaches are required to be open to the public. The legislation would carve out 10 percent of the country’s beaches — around 800 kilometers of shoreline in total — in each coastal city for exclusive use by hotels and other private sector developers.
”It says every coastal cities will take some areas and use it for the private sector and big hotels,” said Ronaldo Christofoletti, a marine professor at the Federal University of São Paulo and an advisor for the Boticario Foundation. “For the areas, they won’t have to follow certain rules for environmental use. They can do whatever they want.” This runs the risk of increased pollution, harm to local marine ecosystems and other consequences, he added.
Closing off a portion to the beach would violate Brazil’s tradition of democratic beaches. “It makes no sense to discuss the privatization of the beach, one of the city’s most important assets, and restrict it to specific groups,” said Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Roberta Werner. “The beach is for all cariocas (locals) and tourists, and it must remain so.” The legislation could be a pandora’s box for the traditionally off limits beaches.
For more than a decade, the country has undergone a privatization process to speed…