To be considered a startup, the company must have an innovative business proposal with great growth potential, according to Sebrae’s definition. Community-Based Tourism (CBT), on the other hand, has its own time. This is because, in communities, there is a time to plant and a time to harvest and any practice that claims to contemplate and respect these realities must also consider their peculiarities.
Community-Based Tourism is slow travel (a type of tourism that is gaining more and more followers around the world, which preaches sustainable, slower and more in-depth travel), so this commercialization of“fast CBT” is a distortion created by this current economic model – which, by the way, is not the only one possible and needs to be rethought!
Check out this reflection, in detail, in the following video, in the words of Mariana Madureira, director of Raízes Desenvolvimento Sustentável, member of Coletivo Muda! and advisor to Projeto Bagagem.
Mariana Madureira is a co-founder of Raízes, with extensive experience in collaborative project management, sustainable tourism, and dialogue with traditional communities. She loves finding solutions and designing strategies to make collective dreams come true. She has always been interested in cultural diversity, photography, maps, history and stories.
As well as being an advisor to Projeto Bagagem (an NGO promoting community-based tourism in Brazil) and a member of Coletivo Muda!, she participates in networks such as Folha de São Paulo’s Social Entrepreneurs Network, Mulheres B (Sistema B Brasil) and Rede Anima.
Before founding Raízes, she worked for public authorities and regional tourism development associations. Restless, she has lived in the United States, Italy, São Paulo, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and Pará, but her origins and heart are in Minas Gerais. Find out more about her by clicking here.
