Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), last week, established a line of credit of 1 billion Brazilian reais (US$ 544.5 million) for refurbishing, expanding and building new hotels.
The initiative had already been announced in the first week of January. The line was launched in Rio de Janeiro by the minister of Tourism, Luiz Barretto, and the vice president of the BNDES, Armando Mariante.
“This partnership is one of the pillars for preparing the country for the World Cup and the Olympics. The role of the government, rather than taking the place of the sector’s entrepreneurship, is to promote development, to establish mechanisms for businessmen to strengthen themselves, and that is what we are doing by establishing this line of credit for the hotel industry,” said Barretto during the event.
To the vice president of the BNDES, the line will enable the hotel industry to adapt to the new reality of the country and to the challenges that Brazil is going to face. “The hotel industry needs to reach a level that will make us proud, one that is able to meet the growing demand,” claimed Mariante.
The line of credit is part of a set of actions of the federal government for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The effort includes the concepts of Standard Hotel, Energy Efficient Hotel and Sustainable Hotel, with different rules for each category.
By offering more favorable conditions to projects that take environmental sustainability into account, the government expects to obtain environmental commitment from the hotel industry.
In order to have access to the line of credit, hotels and lodgings throughout the country should enroll in the registry system for tourism service providers of the Ministry of Tourism, a.k.a. Cadastur (www.cadastur.turismo.gov.br). Enrolment is free of charge.
