Federal Deputy Herculano Passos is the seventh interviewee in the series Turismo no Congresso, a partnership between PANROTAS and Sindepat (Integrated System of Parks and Tourist Attractions).
Herculano Passos has been mayor of Itu (SP) twice and, during this period, he was president of the Association of Municipalities of the Estância Cities of the State of São Paulo (Aprecesp).
The Deputy, who already has an expressive background, arrived at the Congress to, in addition to presiding over the Chamber’s Tourism Committee, act in the creation of the Mixed Parliamentary Front for Tourism, which he presided over for five years. Currently, Passos is Vice President of Frentur.
In the conversation, Herculano, who is already in his second term as Federal Deputy, talks about his relationship with tourism, the impacts of the pandemic and the regulation of casinos in Brazil.
Check out the full interview below.
SINDEPAT: What is your relationship with Tourism?
Dep. Herculano Passos: I am in my second term as federal deputy and, in these years, I have always been an active member of the Chamber’s Tourism Committee, and I had the honor of chairing it. I was also one of the founders of the Mixed Parliamentary Tourism Front, of which I was president for five years.
Today it is chaired by the former minister of Tourism, Marx Beltrão, and I am vice-president. But I’ve known the industry since long before my arrival in Congress. I am a businessman in the gastronomic area in a city that is a tourist resort in São Paulo, Itu. I was Mayor of Itu twice and, in that period, I presided over the Association of Municipalities of the Estância Cities of the State of São Paulo. I am fully convinced that Tourism is fundamental for the economic development of a country like Brazil.
SINDEPAT: How do you assess the impacts of the pandemic on the tourism sector?
Dep. Herculano Passos: Tourism was possibly one of the first sectors to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost the entire sector was paralyzed, with losses that today exceed R$ 340 billion, according to data from the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC). Tourism impacts more than 50 economic segments and we know that many companies, which depended directly or indirectly on Tourism, did not resist. Many closed, workers lost jobs. Since then, we have been working in Congress to reduce these impacts, with measures that make working hours more flexible, resources to finance the sector… We have built measures in Congress that can give breath to the sector during the pandemic.
SINDEPAT: What are your main agendas in Congress?
Dep. Herculano Passos: I have two main agendas: Tourism and municipalism. Tourism is for me one of the main paths for the economic development of Brazil, generating employment and income, capable of distributing its income in various social segments. And I also defend municipalism, so much so that I am president of the Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defense of Brazilian Municipalities, because it is in the municipality where we live. It is he who needs to offer citizens a good quality of life.
SINDEPAT: What are your main projects in Congress?
Dep. Herculano Passos: I am co-author of PL 1158/21, which creates the health passport. It is a digital vaccination card that would make it possible to relax restrictive measures even during the pandemic. It is already being used in Europe and I believe it can benefit us. I defend the return of maritime cruises to Brazil, as is already happening in Europe and the United States. The passport can support that segment, too. We are currently analyzing each project that arrives at the Chamber’s Tourism Committee and we have invested a lot of time in all measures and projects that minimize the impacts of the pandemic on Tourism, as was the approval of the Emergency Retake Program for the Events Sector and Tourism, the Perse.
SINDEPAT: In this second term, what would you like to achieve and what would you highlight among the achievements of the previous term?
Dep. Herculano Passos: In the last term, we were able to approve the transformation of Embratur from an autarchy into an agency, expanding its fundraising possibilities; we were also able to make visas flexible for four countries with significant demand for Brazil.
One of my main goals is the regulation of casinos in Brazil. I believe that if there was no pandemic, we would have already managed to approve the bases for the establishment of casinos around here. Even the evangelical group, which was against the casinos, has already accepted the proposal, understanding that it is something positive, capable of bringing much more benefits than harm to the country.
We are now very focused on encouraging domestic tourism, because we know that social isolation has awakened Brazilians’ desire to travel. Tourism will be fundamental in the recovery of the post-pandemic Brazilian economy. The trend towards domestic travel should be taken advantage of here, especially as we have a market for it. Brazil is a continental country and we must work so that Brazilians get to know Brazil in this resumption
SINDEPAT: How do you see the performance of the G20, a group of tourism associations, in the Congress?
Dep. Herculano Passos: The G20 was an excellent idea, an initiative to unite the sector, unifying the demands. When we meet in consortia, the demands are stronger and our representation is increased. I believe that this union can even help to gather more parliamentarians in defense of Tourism as a whole. When I presided over Aprecesp, I was concerned with showing associates the work of each entity in the sector, to give a really broad panorama of what Tourism can represent.
