São Paulo – A group of some 320 staff from the Algerian pharmaceutical company El Kendi is currently on an incentive trip in Rio de Janeiro. They arrived last Monday (13) and will stay in the city until Sunday (19). Their schedule includes visits to tourist spots and integration activities.
“This is their first time in Brazil,” said the first secretary of the embassy of Algeria in Brasília, Chafik Kellala. They are male and female professionals in the fields of medicine, biology, pharmacy and veterinary sciences. According to him, the company offers incentive trips to different destinations every year.
According to Rio-based tour operator BIT Incentives director Clara Assumpção, who organized the excursion, the group has been to Corcovado, Pão de Açúcar, and to the traditional downtown neighborhood Lapa. “They loved it,” she said.
This Friday morning (17), the Algerians got together at São Conrado beach, in the south side. The activity there was designed to integrate staff from different departments and positions within the company. BIT is a Destination Management Company, meaning it possesses vast knowledge and experience in their area, and organizes events, tours and activities to meet customer requirements.
Kellala added that some of the travellers came to Brazil on a special flight by Air Algérie, an Algerian carrier that doesn’t fly regularly to Brazil. The embassy got clearance from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) for the trip, he explained.
The diplomat also said some people in the group plan on returning to Brazil on business trips. “The embassy supplied them with information on the Brazilian market for pharmaceutical products,” he asserted.
According to the El Kendi website, the company has over 1,100 employees and is run by young people no older than 40. Assumpção noted that the group in Rio comprises mostly people in the 20-30 age bracket. The El Kendi brand is owned by MS Pharma, from Amman, Jordan.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum