{"id":384627,"date":"2025-03-21T13:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T16:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=384627"},"modified":"2025-03-21T13:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T16:40:14","slug":"sao-paulo-state-prepares-for-muslim-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/sao-paulo-state-prepares-for-muslim-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"S\u00e3o Paulo state prepares for Muslim tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The state of S\u00e3o Paulo<\/strong> is working to bring Muslims into the radar of local tourism establishments and ensure that visitors of this religion, coming from other parts of Brazil or abroad, feel welcomed in S\u00e3o Paulo. A year and a half ago, the S\u00e3o Paulo State Secretariat for Tourism and Travel launched the Halal Tourism Guide<\/a>, positioning itself as a Muslim Friendly destination<\/strong>, capable of providing a warm welcome to Muslims. Since then, it has been promoting initiatives in this direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all started with the signing of an agreement in the second half of 2023 between the Federation of Muslim Associations of Brazil (FAMBRAS) and the tourism secretariat, through which the two developed the Halal Tourism Guide<\/strong> in partnership. Halal means lawful or permitted, that is, something that is in accordance with Islamic principles and can be consumed or used by followers of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Islamic
Islamic spaces in the state, such as the Brazil Mosque in S\u00e3o Paulo city, are included in the guide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The secretariat\u2019s tourism coordinator Ana Clemente explained to ANBA the two major goals of the guide, one of which is to ensure that visitors to the city or state of S\u00e3o Paulo get to know the local Islamic culture. \u201cBut also to be able to properly welcome and host this audience in businesses, establishments, and attractions in the city and state of S\u00e3o Paulo,\u201d she says about the reception of Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this proposal, the guide includes not only the listing of mosques<\/strong> and other spaces related to the Islamic culture in the state, to be visited by all types of tourists, but also features suggestions for major tourist attractions in S\u00e3o Paulo, ranging from stadiums to museums, as leisure options for Muslims.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The Seven Beaches Trail in Ubatuba city is one of the recommendations in the tourism guide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe also included the main attractions of the city and the state\u2014what you can\u2019t miss when coming to S\u00e3o Paulo,\u201d explains Clemente about the guide. This list includes, for example, the Ibirapuera Park in S\u00e3o Paulo, the Paranapiacaba village in Santo Andr\u00e9, the Arts Fair in Embu das Artes, the Seven Beaches Trail in Ubatuba, and others. Among the Islamic spaces featured in the guide are the Brazil Mosque in S\u00e3o Paulo, the Islamic Center of Jundia\u00ed, and the Islamic Mosque of Santos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication also lists a series of hotels<\/strong> and restaurants<\/strong>. There are hotels that are more prepared to serve Muslims, with prayer rugs, the direction of Mecca indicated, the Quran in the rooms, and other features, as well as those at an earlier stage of adaptation. However, according to Clemente, all have undergone at least some form of awareness on the topic. Among the recommended restaurants, there are those that are more adapted and others still in the process of adjustment, but all offer something that an Islamic visitor can consume, she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The hotels underwent halal training offered through a partnership between FAMBRAS<\/strong>, via its Halal Academy, and the tourism secretariat, with its qualification program. Other sectors, such as municipal governments in S\u00e3o Paulo state\u2019s cities and the tourism trade, were also trained on the topic. According to the tourism coordinator, over a thousand people in the hospitality sector were trained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe carried out some training actions to guide on how to welcome and provide hospitality, as well as minimize prejudice and stereotypes, which are often spread incorrectly. We tried to show that tourism is an activity that seeks peace, integration, and aims to showcase the cultural diversity we have in Brazil and in S\u00e3o Paulo,\u201d explains Clemente.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the training and the creation of the Halal Tourism Guide, other initiatives aimed at Muslim tourism have also been implemented. \u201cWe have a calendar of more than 60 fairs and events where we promote the state\u2019s tourism offerings. In some of them, we also promoted Halal tourism,\u201d says the tourism coordinator, explaining that these were fairs held in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no surveys on the number of Muslim tourists that the state of S\u00e3o Paulo receives, nor a target for the number of visitors to attract, but Clemente believes there have been results from the work done so far. \u201cI have received many questions and inquiries,\u201d Clemente says about the interest that halal tourism has sparked. The training and promotion actions for halal tourism should continue and expand in the state, but this calendar is yet to be defined, according to the coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For everyone<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just as it created a guide for Muslim tourists, the tourism secretariat also launched tourist guides for Catholic, Jewish, and Evangelical visitors, and plans to do the same for African heritage religions and Eastern religions. \u201cWe want the tourist to feel welcomed in S\u00e3o Paulo, to feel that we respect differences, that we respect religion, ethnicity, gender, and that we respect all the characteristics of the people who come,\u201d says the tourism coordinator of the secretariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:<\/em>
Foz do Igua\u00e7u launches halal tourism guide<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong>
<\/a><\/p>\n

Collection\/S\u00e3o Paulo Tourism Secretariat<\/div>
\u00a9Dario Oliveira\/NurPhoto\/AFP<\/div>
\u00a9Andr\u00e9 Rosa\/S\u00e3o Paulo Tourism Secretariat<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Along with the launch of the Halal Tourism Guide about a year and a half ago, the S\u00e3o Paulo State Department of Tourism and Travel has been promoting training to ensure that residents of S\u00e3o Paulo are ready to welcome tourists from this religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":384612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[10215,12730,52709,2643,10080,9692],"class_list":{"0":"post-384627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tourism","8":"tag-islam-en","9":"tag-leisure-en","10":"tag-mosques","11":"tag-muslims","12":"tag-sao-paulo-en","13":"tag-tourism-en"},"wps_subtitle":"Along with the launch of the Halal Tourism Guide about a year and a half ago, the S\u00e3o Paulo State Department of Tourism and Travel has been promoting training to ensure that residents of S\u00e3o Paulo are ready to welcome tourists from this religion.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384627","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\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}