Broadening the Bahian beat: Afro-Brazilian city wears new face for corporate visitors

Latin Trade, May, 2003 by Thierry Ogier

The capital of African-Brazilian culture is wooing a new following: the business community.

Drumbeats do not only echo during Carnival celebrations in Salvador da Bahia. Rather, non-ending street rehearsals in the heart of Pelourinho, its colonial district, have almost become a registered trademark of the city, alongside the distinctive flavor of street corner acaraje--the hot African dish of manioc flour topped with shrimp. The blend of West African culture and colonial architecture (the 16th century Sao Francisco church has more gold under its roof than any other building in the country) increasingly draws busloads of tourists, as well as young African Americans in search of history and roots. Now corporate dollars are joining the mix.

"I used to be carioca. Now, I am already Bahian," says 37-year-old Eduardo Farina, a Rio de Janeiro executive who left his position at a Swiss multinational to pursue a career in Salvador. His experience in mergers and acquisitions and his contacts in the financial world have helped him boost the fortunes of the Bahian Entertainment, Culture and Tourism Cluster, which he has headed since August.

The business landscape received a powerful boost when Ford Motor Co. decided to build a plant near Salvador a couple of years ago. In a quest for more of the same, a dozen private and public sector institutions now share responsibility for touting the area's investment appeal, at the same time they work to attract higher-profile visitors--including business travelers. Players behind the effort include Accor, the French hotel and tourism services conglomerate, Portuguese hotel group Pestana, TAM airlines and Odebrecht, a locally based construction and engineering company.

"While a tourist on vacation spends US$60 per day in average, a business traveler injects some $150 in the local economy," says Fernando Ferrero, president of the Salvador Conventions Bureau. He notes that the number of trade shows in the city swelled from 36 in 2001 to 52 last year; there are 65 on the schedule for 2003.

Building frenzy. Hotel construction, meanwhile, has gone wild, with some hotels rising in tandem with their own convention centers. The refurbished luxury Pestana hotel (formerly the Meridien) had barely opened last year in the Rio Vermelho seafront area when French group Accor kicked off work nearby on two budget-conscious business hotels bearing its Ibis and Mercure brand names. Other new construction, including temporary office space for executives with short-term stays in the city, is transforming festive Salvador into a serious business destination.

Accor, juggling half a dozen hotel projects, has emerged as Bahia's biggest investor. Its most ambitious undertaking is the restoration of an old convent in Pelourinho, just a few hundred yards from the house where famed novelist Jorge Amado once lived. The inn, described as a "charm hotel," is due to debut at year's end.

"Salvador boasts one the richest colonial architectural environments in Latin America, and Pelourinho is right at the heart of it," says Roland de Bonadona, director of the hotel division of Accor for South and Central America.

Hotel capacity in Salvador and the nearby Costa do Sauipe resort--already home to two luxury Sofitel hotels and a pair of Marriott hotels--currently stands at more than 25,000 beds, but new projects are expected to add 10,000 more to the region by 2006. Even though the $250 million Costa do Sauipe resort has fallen short of a commercial success, with an occupancy rate last year averaging below 50%, foreign investors are forging ahead. Palma de Mallorca-based Ibero Star will build a $300 million beach resort along the Coconut Coast, near Salvador. The Portuguese Vila Gale group also plans to set up a hotel and spa, with a convention center, about 40 kilometers outside Salvador by the end of 2004.

With foreign cash pouring in the area, cultural attractions are shifting from their ethnic origins in order to attract a wider audience. A Rodin museum is slated to open in November, following a partnership with its Paris-based parent. Four molds of the French sculptor's work were purchased and another 30 were loaned to the Bahian museum going up in the Bernardo Catharino Palace, which was built almost a century ago in an-upper class neighborhood. The first Rodin museum outside France will put Salvador on the international art map, says Ignez Mantovani, coordinator of the project.

Meanwhile, international boat races will also call at Salvador for the first time in November 2003, and an international dance festival is in the works, although no date has been selected yet.

Business travelers increasingly enjoy a wide range of year-round options in Salvador. "[Business travel] is a great market that moves millions," says Accor's Bonadona. "Important cities with a strong image and good infrastructure offer an excellent potential, and Salvador is undoubtedly one of them."