Vivalá Tourism and Volunteering: planning the future of a social business
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Lara Liz Freire
Helena Araújo Costa
Summary
Vivalá emerged from the idea of three Brazilian entrepreneurs who built a social business in the tourism sector to offer tourism and volunteering experiences. Through the experience in community-based tourism, volunteers immerse themselves in conservation units and their communities, lead the change, empowering small family businesses, in the most varied business axes. The company has already reached 760 travelers from 8 countries in 49 expeditions that injected more than 500 thousand reais into local economies. However, in early 2020, Brazil began to face the biggest health and economic crisis of the century, the COVID-19 Pandemic, which widened inequalities and completely paralyzed tourism activity. Thus, in the face of the new challenges that have arisen for entrepreneurs, the case brings the participant to reflect on the main management challenges that Vivalá currently faces, the strategic directions to be taken and how to plan for the future considering the history, the purpose of the company and its vision.
Keywords: Community-based tourism; Social business; Volunteering; Stakeholders; Pandemic; Planning.
Abstract
Vivalá arose from the idea of three entrepreneurs who have built a social business in the tourism industry that offers tourism and volunteer experiences. Through their experience in community-based tourism, volunteers immerse themselves in natural protected areas and their communities, empowering small family businesses in the most varied business aspects. The company has already reached 760 travelers from 8 countries in 49 expeditions that injected more than 500 thousand reais into local economies. However, at the beginning of 2020, Brazil began to face the biggest sanitary and economic crisis of the century, the COVID-19 Pandemic, which widened inequalities and completely paralyzed tourism. Thus, given the new challenges that have emerged for entrepreneurs, the case brings the participant to reflect on the main management challenges that Vivalá currently faces, the strategic directions to be taken and how to plan for the future considering history, the purpose of the company and its vision.
Keywords: Community-based tourism; Volunteering; Social business; stakeholders; Pandemic; Planning.
Vivalá: a business based on tourism and education as engines of local transformation
In 2013, during the construction of the final work of the advertising and marketing course at ESPM, Daniel Cabrera, Pedro Gayotto and Bárbara Espir, created the concept of Vivalá. The idea was developed over the course of a year, through the modality of the conclusion work of an entrepreneurial course, where students would make a business laboratory with a fictitious company created by them. The three saw the opportunity to use this year of study to build a business model that could go beyond an academic paper.
From the beginning, they knew they wanted to have a business that generated profit and environmental impact at the same time, they imagined something between an NGO and a company. As they put it, they wanted to "do something different, beyond just complaining." Then, they observed that many Brazilians did not know their own country and that this distancing from Brazil's cultural and natural diversity reinforces prejudices and does not encourage knowing and protecting the country's exuberant biodiversity. Therefore, they chose tourism and education as engines of local transformation.
The project was shelved for 3 years. Then, in 2016, it really got off the ground. The co-founders chose to have an agency as a company, and after that, they felt the need to embrace the social side by creating an NGO, the Vivalá Institute, until they identified themselves as Social Business and merged all the fronts of the business into the company Vivalá. With 5 years of operation, the company has already served 760 volunteers from 8 different countries and helped inject more than 500 thousand reais into local economies through community-based tourism. During this period, 127 family businesses were served in the 49 expeditions operated by the company in 7 communities in Brazil.
The company has grown and has been recognized as a differentiated business model. In 2019, it received an important national award, the Braztoa Award for Sustainability in Tourism, offered by the Brazilian Association of Tour Operators (BRAZTOA). She was also the winner of the Belvitur 2020 Challenge, from Young Leaders of Americas 2018 and the Award Global Student Entrepreneur Awards São Paulo, 2017.
Voluntourism: tourism with purpose and with an eye on social change
Voluntourism is the name given to trips that combine sightseeing with volunteer work, it is usually directed to places of natural, cultural or gastronomic attractions and sought after by people willing to leave a positive legacy in the visited community. Unlike mass tourism or predatory tourism (characterized by the exploration of the nature and culture of the places visited), this modality provides an exchange of knowledge between travelers and the community, in addition to the clear positive impact left by volunteers.
Daniel Cabrera, co-founder and CEO of Vivalá, highlights the transformative power of travel and the passion behind the business. He says: "We have always been passionate about travel, and we know the transformative power it has. The giant gain of knowledge, culture, openness to the new, immersion in local communities, deep relationships with people, with nature, and well-being for all involved. On the other hand, we understand the size of the challenges that Brazil faces, and we increasingly feel more responsible in acting and seeking sustainable development. The country is an incredible, continental place, with one of the greatest biodiversity in the world, extremely rich in nature, culture and the receptivity of Brazilians. And even then, it is not valued as much as it could be. Vivalá came from this junction, and from the understanding that sustainable, community-based tourism, and associated with volunteering done in a serious, measurable way, is one of the solid ways to help create the country we want to live in, a country with more quality of life and belonging for its citizens"[ 1] .
Still, Daniel understands that Vivalá, as a social business, arises from the junction of two main problems: "On the one hand, Brazil has a giant potential to establish truly sustainable tourism, generate opportunity and development for hundreds of communities and receive many millions of tourists per year. On the other hand, tourists seek more authentic experiences, where they can actually get to know a place, relate to nature, its population, its culture, and feel the feeling of leaving a positive legacy for the visited community". [ 2]
Vivalá has its own voluntourism methodology. Focused on a holistic immersion in preservation units, volunteers share life experiences with diverse participants to broaden their goals and worldview. During the expeditions, through contact with community members. The volunteers, also called volunturists, learn about the culture and experience the place, in addition to coming up with solutions to the challenges that each of the community businesses presents.
Before the trip, the volunteer receives an online training, where the company's volunteering methodology is presented. In addition, the volunteer learns about biodiversity, local culture, important contacts and suggestions of what to pack in the suitcase. All process done by Vivalá. During the trip, the voluntourists enjoy paradisiacal destinations in our country, while living the experience of a cultural exchange. They undergo a deep immersion in nature and local culture, and to generate a positive impact, they bring training, content, knowledge to the community members and use business management tools to microentrepreneurs in each region, acting as entrepreneurial education mentors in the units visited (Annex 1).
The methodology of the Vivalá Business University includes 10 fronts: business definition, financial planning, marketing strategy, sales strategy, digital tools, public relations of interest, sustainable actions, self-knowledge, long-term planning and advice consultivo.Com this, it is possible to progressively improve the quality of management of small businesses in the regions served, increasing their flow of customers and generating more impact for that community. In addition to the local impact, the transformers get to know their own country more, experience life in another culture in an immersive way and build a positive legacy in their tourist journey.
According to Elisa Burrai, a researcher at Leeds Becket University (UK) who specializes in voluntourism, most of the academic literature focuses on the benefits of voluntourism. Among them are: the exercise of altruism by volunteers, and their personal development, improvement of mutual understanding between people from different realities, improvement of the living conditions of the visited community and increase of social articulations in favor of local development (Burrai et al , 2015). However, there are also concerns around this tourism model, including: an excessive dependence of the community on the resources generated by visitation, a possible marginalization and even the reduction of the empowerment of the communities visited, especially when the volunteer occupies a "position of power" (Burrai et al , 2015). Both aspects of possible impacts need to be taken into account in order to build genuinely responsible tourism together with these communities and in favor of their sustainability.
Social business: building a company that generates profit and social impact simultaneously
According to Cardoso (2015), social business is a hybrid organization with the aim of generating, at the same time, profit and social impact. In addition, according to the Alliance for Impact Investments and Businesses (2021), social businesses are characterized by: having the intention of solving a social and/or environmental problem; facing the problem is the main activity of the business; it aims at financial return, operates according to market logic; and is committed to monitoring the impact generated (Annex 2).
Vivalá postulated in its bylaws that 50% of the company's profits should be invested in the company's cash, so that the impact reaches more people and that the company can generate more jobs for more people. In addition, the company serves small family businesses in community-based tourism. In Brazil, 75% of businesses that declare bankruptcy are due to lack of planning and management. To solve this problem, Vivalá's proposal is to train and take volunteers interested in exchanging experiences and promoting changes for the conservation units, in order to develop these businesses through entrepreneurial education.
The company acts as a tour operator, planning, managing and executing the expeditions, and as an agency communicating and negotiating the products with customers. The expedition package encompasses the entire experience, with the exception of the air, that is, accommodation, food, water and land transportation, tours, volunteer material, training, are included. The profile of Vivalá's volunturist is mostly female, Brazilians, young adults, with higher education, who already have prior knowledge of the importance of community-based tourism, who have already had other tourist experiences.
With a lean organizational structure of 9 employees, they prioritize having ''a few very good'', through this model the company managed to grow exponentially at 3 digits per year from 2017 to 2019. With this, the company was able to gain a financial reserve in case it was necessary and invest in the expansion of the business.
The plans for the future of Vivalá, according to Daniel, are expansion, increase in scale, strengthening the relationship with stakeholders and consolidating the company's positive impact. Daniel explains that "today we operate in 4 communities in three states between Amazonas, Pará and Maranhão. Now it's time to increase the scale and impact of our initiative and we want to expand 100% in 2021, reaching 8 communities in conservation units. In this expansion, initiation is planned in the destinations: Chapada dos Veadeiros (GO), Chapada Diamantina (BA), Seridó Geopark (RN), Shanekaya Village (AC). With this vision, we have the potential to make 36 expeditions in 8 Brazilian conservation units, in 7 states, with 1487 volunteers, R$ 2.7 million in revenue, injecting R$ 950 thousand in communities via TBC, with 302 community-based tourism businesses in our training program, carrying out 8922 hours of volunteering. To achieve this potential we will further deepen our digital content marketing strategy, launch our referral program taking advantage of the high NPS, increase distribution contracts with agencies, and increase relationships with universities."
COVID-19: The biggest health crisis of the century has paralyzed tourism
In March 2020, Brazil was surprised by the arrival of the Corona virus pandemic, national and international travel was immediately impossible, all activities that require travel were discouraged as a sanitary measure to prevent COVID-19. Small businesses and service sectors, especially tourism, were the most affected in terms of revenue and customer flow.
In a survey carried out by FGV in conjunction with SEBRAE, in July 2020, it indicates that before the pandemic, only 26.6% of companies were in a good financial situation, while 73.4% were in a fair or bad situation. With the COVID-19 pandemic, 3.5% of businesses closed permanently, 58.9% closed temporarily, 31.0% changed their operation, and only 6.6% were able to continue operating in the same way as before. In addition, the survey also concluded that of the companies that continued to operate, 41.9% now provide online service, 41.2% operating with reduced hours and 21.6% have adopted the remote work model.
When looking specifically at the tourism sector, SEBRAE (2020), in its report on COVID-19 and small businesses, showed that revenue fell by 63% in small tourism businesses. In addition, more than 60% of businesses remain closed. As tourism is the most affected sector, it recorded an 87% drop in its revenue in November 2020. Before that, there were growth expectations for 2020, as previous years indicated.
In view of this, Vivalá, when analyzing its past and looking at the current situation, perceives the following aspects:
a) Have made significant profits in recent years;
b) Stoppage of tourism activity in the last 18 months;
c) Restrictions on the company's operation with the need for social isolation and sanitary measures to contain the pandemic;
d) Desire to grow while maintaining purpose;
e) Commitment to serving family businesses affected by the pandemic;
f) Need to manage previously purchased packages.
By analyzing these factors, Vivalá needs to reorganize itself and establish premises and lines of action to face the crisis posed by the pandemic for the social business model based on voluntourism.
Discussion questions:
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Identify the main ones Stakeholders of Vivalá.
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Analyze how the company could value the benefits of voluntourism and minimize the potential losses generated by it.
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How could the company support partner communities during the pandemic scenario, in which travel was paralyzed?
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Analyze what elements Vivalá must observe to decide on the resumption of travel and how it can maintain communication with its target audience.
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What are the main challenges faced by the company today to carry out its future plans?
References
ALLIANCE FOR IMPACT INVESTMENTS AND BUSINESSES. What are Impact Businesses. Available at: https://aliancapeloimpacto.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ice-estudo-negocios-de-impacto-2019-web.pdf . Accessed on: 3 mar. 2021.
BURRAI, Elisa; FONT, Xavier; COCHRANE, Janet. Destination stakeholders' perceptions of volunteer tourism: an equity theory approach. International Journal of Tourism Research, vol 17, 5, 2015.
DRAFT PROJECT. DRAFT ENTRY: WHAT IS VOLUNTOURISM. Available at: https://www.projetodraft.com/verbete-draft-o-que-e-volunturismo/ . Accessed on: 29 mar. 2021.
VIVALÁ. Sustainable Tourism in Brazil. Community, Nature, Volunteering. Available at: https://vivala.com.br . Accessed on: 31 mar. 2021.
SEBRAE. COVID-19 AND SMALL BUSINESS: IMPACTS AND TRENDS 24 Edition Nov. 2020
[ 1] Interview available at https://network.changemakers.com/challenge/turismosustentavel/inscricoes/vivala
[ 2] Interview available at https://network.changemakers.com/challenge/turismosustentavel/inscricoes/vivala
About the Authors
Lara Liz Freire is a Business Administration student at the University of Brasília and a member of the Casoteca ADM Team. Email:lara.liz@aluno.unb.br
Helena Araújo Costa is an Associate Professor II at the Department of Administration at the University of Brasilia. Coordinator of the ADM Casoteca. Professor of Contemporary Topics in ADM and Introduction to ADM. Email: helenacosta@unb.br
Attachments
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