We’d been eyeing membership of Coletivo Muda! (yes, with an exclamation point!), since its founding late last year (2018).
The collective is made up of travel services providers, accommodations, government agencies, and media, committed to responsible travel and to promoting tourism destinations sustainably, in Brazil. This essentially means, that members have signed an agreement that they will assume responsibility for the impact travel clients cause, keeping negative footprints as small as possible, and increasing positive presence and commitment to local development. Since Viare, quite literally started as a responsible travel organization (our name is a short form of the words “Viagens Responsáveis,” which means “Responsible Travel” in Portuguese), it only made sense we would soon become a partner or member organization.
The founding members are all operators, agencies, and accommodation providers Viare admires and works with, and so when we were invited to apply, we were thrilled and got to work on our extensive application right away! After our approval, we have been put in touch with organizations on an almost daily basis, and learning of different responsible travel initiatives and partnerships for us to include in our plethora of sustainable travel partners’ listing in Brazil.
In Portuguese, the word muda can mean change, as well as a sprout, or seedling. The slogan is related to how tourism in Brazil needs to change, in order to grow, and the exclamation point, to us, is a sign of urgency! We are a country with incredible potential for tourism, and those of us involved in Muda! want to make sure this potential is achieved, and met with benefits to destinations’ communities, conservation of our splendid environment, and dialogue throughout the travel services cycle.
Viare Travel hopes to contribute significantly to Muda!, and are excited to share news and work with like-minded travel companies, in order to make our clients’ purposeful travel experiences in Brazil even more enriching, and to keep continuing to promote local sustainable development through tourism, throughout the country.
Learn more about Muda!, and who the other member organizations are, here: Coletivo Muda!
