{"id":195383,"date":"2018-06-05T17:35:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T19:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=195383"},"modified":"2018-06-05T18:17:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T20:17:39","slug":"consul-lebanon-looks-increase-diaspora-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/consul-lebanon-looks-increase-diaspora-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Consul of Lebanon looks to increase diaspora tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Lebanon\u2019s new consul general to S\u00e3o Paulo, Rudy El Azzi, said one of his primary goals is to increase tourism to his country by the diaspora. While visiting the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce<\/strong> (pictured above on the right with Chamber president Rubens Hannun<\/em>) on Monday (4) afternoon, Azzi spoke with ANBA about the Lebanese community in Brazil and the state of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur priority is the community, which has been in Brazil for over 140 years now. This means several generations. Some have been to Lebanon, others haven\u2019t, and it is our role to remind them of their roots through culture, through trips to Lebanon and by doing work in Lebanese clubs and associations,\u201d Azzi said. According to him, one of the consulate\u2019s jobs include encouraging and supporting events held by the community. \u201cWe must keep track of what is happening and be close to the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Lebanon\u2019s image in Brazil, Azzi said that working to ensure more descendants travel to their home country is a priority. \u201cThe majority of the diaspora have never been there, or else they have been there twenty or thirty years ago. This is not a question of economics, it\u2019s a question of promoting our country. We do know that this is a difficult kind of tourism. It\u2019s not like going to Argentina, but one needs to see Lebanon firsthand to get a true perception of Lebanese culture,\u201d he pondered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people think we live in the desert and ride camels, but we are one of a few Arab countries where there is no desert. We have mountains, beaches, snow. Whenever the Arabs in the Gulf are looking for better weather, they will take a trip to Lebanon. We want people to be able to tell our country apart from other Arab countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the culture front, there are plans for bringing a famous Lebanese theater group to Brazil. \u201cWe want to promote actual cultural contact through music, theater and dancing. This is more important than our social media work, which we already do well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding Brazil-Lebanon relations, Azzi said that diplomacy-wise they are great \u2013 Brazil is running a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Lebanon, by the Israeli border \u2013 but that when it comes to trade, numbers are still modest. \u201cAlthough Brazil exports large amounts to Lebanon, this could increase, and Lebanon can also increase its sales to Brazil, but there is no free trade agreement, which poses a major challenge. Research and effort are in order so that Mercosur can reach an agreement with Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The consul arrived in Brazil last April. He is now adapting, becoming familiar with Brazilian culture and especially the diaspora. His jurisdiction includes the states of S\u00e3o Paulo, Santa Catarina, Paran\u00e1, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Rond\u00f4nia. He estimates that these states are home to a combined 5 million-strong Lebanese community (Brazil is home to an estimated 8 million Lebanese natives and descendants). With a career in diplomacy spanning 15 years, Azzi has served stints as a consul in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Romania. His latest post was as interim ambassador in Mexico.<\/p>\n

Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rodrigo Rodrigues\/Arab Chamber<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new consul general to S\u00e3o Paulo, Rudy El Azzi assumed his post in April. There are an estimated four million Lebanese natives and descendants in the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":195392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,56],"tags":[339,3086,3077,26249,290],"class_list":{"0":"post-195383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-foreign-affairs","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"tag-lebanon","10":"tag-consul-general","11":"tag-diaspora","12":"tag-diaspora-en-2","13":"tag-sao-paulo"},"wps_subtitle":"The new consul general to S\u00e3o Paulo, Rudy El Azzi assumed his post in April. There are an estimated four million Lebanese natives and descendants in the city. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}