Tech Roundup: Virtual trips could save Brazil’s tourism sector

You’re reading The Brazilian Report’s weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil. This week’s topics: How tech could help the tourism sector survive. Brazilian startup hubs join forces to build a stronger environment.

Tourism companies turn to tech in reinvention push

No economic sector was hit harder by the pandemic than tourism. In Brazil alone, the National Confederation of Commerce estimates that 35,500 tourism-related companies went under in 2020, with travelers grounded by coronavirus restrictions. The grim reality is forcing companies to find creative ways to adapt to the pandemic world — one of them is digital tourism.

Ecosystem. The entire tourism chain was hit hard by the coronavirus. One such company is luggage maker Além. Launched in September 2019 as a digital-native brand, the company has always had a strong focus on content creation to connect with audiences. But with sales wilting in 2020, CEO Arthur Blaj explains that the company turned content production into its main breadwinner. 

• “We realized people were engaging in immersive content, that made them feel as if they were traveling,” he tells The Brazilian Report. “So we came up with a test, a trip to 1920’s Paris, inspired by the book A Moveable Feast. There were weekly videos in which an expert talked about the book and then a Brazilian historian who lives in Paris took everyone on a tour around the city via Zoom.”
• While organizing the virtual trip — and realizing how challenging it was — Mr. Blaj and his team had...