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Mario Carlos Beni – first tourism in Brazil

Alexandre Panosso Netto

To cite this article: Alexandre Panosso Netto (2018) Mario Carlos Beni – first tourism professor in Brazil, Anatolia, 29:2, 303-310 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2018.1478540

Published online: 17 Jul 2018.

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Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rana20 ANATOLIA 2018, VOL. 29, NO. 2, 303–310 https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2018.1478540

Mario Carlos Beni – first tourism professor in Brazil Alexandre Panosso Netto

School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Introduction

It was in the year 2000 that I personally met Mario Carlos Beni at a conference of . It caught my eye the fact that wherever he would go to, a group of young students would follow him asking questions, dialoguing and taking his best-known book entitled “Análise Estrutural do Turismo” [Structural Analysis of Tourism] to be autographed. Sometime later, I witnessed that at these events he would not only autograph books, but also notebooks, sheets of paper and even napkins for students who wanted to get a souvenir from him. Some colleagues and students call him “guru of Brazilian tourism”, and this is due to his remarkable engagement and work with tourism in Brazil, both in the and in public management since the beginning of the 1970s. Because of his long record of activities in the area – as well as his political and loyal relationship – he is one of the most famous personalities in Brazilian tourism, which allows him free access to multiple educational, professional and public instances in all national territory. In 2018, approaching his 80th birthday and in good health, he announced he was supervising his last master student, but would continue to take part in events and to act in various associations he has been working with. When he was younger, he participated in many tourism conferences in all continents of the globe in which he met and worked with the great names of worldwide tourism of his generation. Although he has been known by and is a contemporary of great international authors, his papers have not been widely used out of Brazil, for they have been published specially in Portuguese (43), and some in English (7), French (4) and Spanish (1). His preference for publishing specially in Portuguese besides language facilities is due to the fact that his studies have direct relation with Brazilian tourism and had as objective the formation of freethinkers of tourism in Brazil. About his life and work in Portuguese language, a chapter of book (Panosso Netto, 2005a) as well as an article on a scientific journal have been published (Borges, Laíssa, & Silva, 2016). This is the first paper to be published about his life and work in English language.

Short life

Mario Carlos Beni was born on 14 April 1938 in the city of Casa Branca, São Paulo, Brazil. His ancestors, back then in Italy, a country with which he has kept close connection during his entire life. He is married to Sônia Beni, have a couple of children, one grandson and one granddaughter. He is the only child of Maria Diva Beni and Mario Beni. According to CPDOC-FGV (2018), his father was an influential politician in the State of São Paulo who took office of public management in several levels and was elected to many mandates as both state and federal representative. Walking in the footsteps of his father, Beni, who was called “Marinho” by closer friends and family members, was elected state representative from São Paulo when he was 29, taking office for

CONTACT Alexandre Panosso Netto [email protected] School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 304 A. P. NETTO the period of 1967–1971. However, the Military Government of Brazil that had reached power through a coup d’état closed the State Assembly and removed all its representatives (1969). Mario Carlos Beni ran for the office of federal representative in the beginning of the 1970s, but was not elected. In the decade of 1980, again he got involved with national politics. In his own words:

In 1983, the country wakes up to the fight for democracy and for “direct elections now” [Brazilian Civil Movement that claimed for the right to democratic election for public offices]. I could not help but engage myself and take active part in the movement, at that time joining myself to PDT [Labour Democratic Party]. Back to political militancy, I got surprised, two years later, when I was elected its General Secretary and, again, could not run away from the polls’ appeal. I ran to the Chamber of Representatives and to the Constituent National Assembly in 1986, obtaining over seventy-thousand votes, still insufficient to lift me up to the position of São Paulo people’s interest representative. (Beni, 2018). After 1986 elections, Beni has not run for public office anymore. This interest and engagement with politics inherited from his father has marked his professional and academic performance throughout his life. Still today, he publicly expresses to friends and on his personal website the interest in taking office at the National Congress to “defend ideas researched and worked in the academy, which go from respect to citizenship to guarantee of full rights of a consolidated democracy” (Beni, 2018).

Academic development

According to an interview of 2005 (Panosso Netto, 2005a), Beni started his studies at university in 1958, when he was 19, in the course of Civil Engineering at Universidade Mackenzie, São Paulo. When he was in the fifth year of the course, he transferred to Universidade Federal Fluminense, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, where he graduated in Legal Sciences (1968). In 1968, he got into University of São Paulo, working as a . Then he received a scholarship from Japan International Cooperation Agency and lived in Tokyo for eight months, where he got to know the “boom in tourism” that took place in the Asian southeast in the early 1970s. He also went through a two-month internship at Instituto de Estudos Turísticos de Madrid, Spain, and after that spent one month at Aix-en-Provence, with René Barejte (Panosso Netto, 2005a). According to his words: “There I really plunged into research in tourism. Later on, I concluded these studies at Cornell (USA) with focus on hospitality and in my return to Brazil I started to imagine a course of tourism at University of São Paulo” (Panosso Netto, 2005a, p. 860). Back to Brazil, he took over the discipline “Tourism and Development” at University of São Paulo (1971). In 1972, he was appointed by the Ministry of Education as the first professor of tourism in Brazil, with the discipline “Planning and Organization of Tourism” (Brasil, 1972). Then he was appointed to elaborate the project of the Graduation Course in Tourism at University of São Paulo. The course was approved and initiated in March of 1973, and was the first higher education course of tourism at a public teaching institution in Brazil, still in operation today (Note: the first higher education course of tourism in Brazil was open in 1971, at current Universidade Anhembi-Morumbi, in São Paulo). Combining teaching activities and university management, Beni initiated his research in tourism and defended his Master in Social Sciences (1981) by Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo with the dissertation on “characterization of the nature of flows for classification of demand for tourism”. His is in communication at University of São Paulo with the thesis on “system of tourism – construction of a theoretical referential model” (1988). His (Professorship) was defended with the thesis on “analysis of the national system of tourism performance established in public administration”, at the University of São Paulo (1991). In 1998, through public tender, he took the office of full professor at the University of São Paulo, crowning his academic career all the more. The University of São Paulo is the reference for Beni, the place where he was one of the first and main responsible for forming and doctors who investigated the phenomenon of ANATOLIA 305 tourism. In 2008, by turning 70, he had to retire compulsorily of academic activities at the University of São Paulo, but continued to work officially as professor in post-graduation pro- grammes at other three Brazilian universities for another 10 years, until 2018, when he turned 80. Because of this versatility, he also became a member of the Ethics Committee of the World Tourism Organization, representing the Americas during the period 2004–2007 (UNWTO, 2007). Nowadays, he still works as Rector at the Corporate University of the National Council of the National Confederation of Tourism, CNTUR [Universidade Corporativa of Conselho Nacional da Confederação Nacional de Turismo]. Among the main professors who were an inspiration in the beginning of his career with tourism, Beni highlighted René Baretje-Keller and Piere Lainé (both from France), Alberto Sessa (Italy), who also developed systemic studies of tourism and Salah-Eldin Abdel Wahab (Egypt), (Panosso Netto, 2005a). He was also inspired by other great researchers of his generation with whom he had contact, among them Jost Krippendorf, Nobert Vanhove, Regina Schlüter, Sergio Molina Espinosa and Jafar Jafari. At the University of São Paulo, he worked along with the main group of researchers of tourism in Brazil in the decades of 1970, 1980 and 1990, among them Wilson Abrahão Rabahy (econo- mist), Sarah Strachman Bacal (public relations), Doris van de Meene Ruschmann (tourismologist) and Américo Pellegrini Filho (journalist). By the end of 1990, other centres of excellence in tourism were started to be created in Brazil with their respective post-graduation programmes, of which Beni also took part as mentor, consultant and professor. The theoretical school to which Beni belongs is the systemic one, of which some of his contemporaries also were part, among them Alberto Sessa, Neil Leiper and Roberto Carlos Boullón. Upon being asked why he considered the theory of systems the most appropriate for tourism studies, he gave the following answer:

I felt, as a professor, a major difficulty of students to correlate different disciplines that integrate curricular structure of tourism. It was really hard for me to establish this correlation. Then I started to study and, without noticing it, to use a series of diagrams. I conceived some drawings and diagrams to explain the complexity and possibly the sectors that would be involved and should be worked out in a permanent interactivity and, besides, on both integration and pro-active aspect. Then I would use this in an absolutely empiric manner; it was when I came across an unpretentious book [Analysis of Systems in Geography. São Paulo: Edusp/Hucitec, 1979, by Antonio Christofolleti], which drove me to a systemic reasoning. And I could not even image how to use an instrument of Theory of Systems to Tourism. [. . .] And then I started to think I needed to work with this. And that’s when SISTUR (System of Tourism) was born, [. . .]. That means: what I was truly searching was a diagram that could show to students all the complexity and the sub-systems that integrated tourism with the concern of showing those systems that precede and explain the phenom- enon of tourism. Then I needed to show that ecology, culture and sociology had variables permanently used in the interpretation both of the fact and the phenomenon of tourism. So it is clear that in order to show this I would always try to refer to what I called system environment, because actually they are areas that definitely lend us variables all the time, and from which we use to explain the framework of the phenom- enon of tourism and then turned to sociology, anthropology, sciences, geography, ecology, environmental area, culture, in short, all these areas, philosophy itself, etc. (Panosso Netto, 2005a, p. 862)

The theoretical development of the system of tourism by Beni occurred during the 1980s became a doctorate thesis in 1988 and was published as a book in 1998 with the title Structural Analysis of Tourism. In 2018, this book had its 13th edition in Portuguese, but never was translated to another language. It is a book with 523 pages. The main theoretical axis is the analysis of tourism from the general theory of systems presented by the biologist Ludwing Von Bertalanffy. Tourism would be formed by three sets: set of environmental relations, set of structural organization and set of operational actions. Each one of these sets would be in constant exchange with each other and with the political, social, environmental, cultural and economic world. Each one of these sets would be formed by sub-sets. In the book, each one of the parties that comprise tourism is explained in its broad context and in its importance for the activity (Figure 1). 306 A. P. NETTO

Figure 1. Beni ’s tourism system (SISTUR). Source: Beni, 1998, p. 48.

It is this systemic view that marked a large part of studies of tourism in Brazil, once his book became required reading in over 700 graduation courses that existed in Brazil between the years 2000 and 2005. According to data of the Ministry of Education (Brazil, 2004) in 2004 there were 89,865 students of graduation courses in the areas of Travel, Tourism and Leisure. Only in 2004, 23,627 new enrolments were made in one of these areas (Brazil, 2004). Today, however, with the decrease of courses and easy access to international studies, besides critical analysis regarding the general theory of systems, the book of Beni has been less used. Despite of this fact, its theoretical matrix represented an advance in tourism, not only in the academy, but also in the national public sector. To show its scope, it is important to mention that the national plans of tourism in Brazil of 2003–2007, 2007–2010 and 2013–2016 used the systemic analysis in their proposals. This is one of the most evident reflexes of Beni studies in Brazil.

Academic works

The main Beni’s projects of research had as focus some aspect of Brazilian national tourism. His papers and books deal with tourism public policy (Beni, 1999b, 2006a, 2006b), transportation (Beni, 2003), tourism management (Beni, 1973; Beni, 1995, 1997b), marketing (Beni, 1998b, 1999a), studies on tourism demand (Beni, 1997a, 1998b), globalization and tourism (Beni, 1996, 1999a, 2004), and education in tourism (Beni, 1975, 1980, 1990a, 1990b, 1993), among other themes. According to data of his public curriculum available at Lattes Platform (2018), Beni formed, as supervisor, 29 masters and 14 doctors. Added to that, there is the participation in 90 boards of master defence, 33 of doctorate e other 36 boards of evaluation of a different kind. Among his students there are some of the main professors and researchers of Brazilian tourism nowadays, besides city and state tourism managers. Former students’ placement in the labour market exemplifies the importance of Beni and explains a little his easy transit through Brazil’s tourism network. ANATOLIA 307

This vast knowledge and the relations mentioned over 48 years of work in the area of tourism has become professor Beni a landmark for numerous researchers and tourism managers of Brazilian tourism. He is one of the oldest members of the Brazil’s National Tourism Council. Appointed in 2003 by the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, since then he has taken part actively in its meetings, and been one of the voices of greater respect in that institution. Between 2003 and 2016, he was probed by the presidency of the Republic to be the director of the Brazilian Institute of Tourism as well as the head of the Ministry of Tourism in several occasions, but never took over any of them. In terms of associations and organizations, Beni has already been a member, or still is, of the Brazilian Association of Bachelors and Students of Tourism, Brazilian National Association of Research and Post-Graduate Studies in Tourism, Brazilian Academy of Events and Tourism, National Confederation of Tourism, National Tourism Council, World Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Training, World Committee on Tourism Ethics (UNWTO, 2004–2007 [UNWTO, 2007]) e International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism. Considering only the engagement with tourism, we could divide the work of Beni in three periods: From 1968 to 1991 – Period in which he establishes the basis of tourism studies in Brazil. He devotes himself specially to teach in graduation in tourism at the University of São Paulo and in further development of his master, doctorate and lecturer studies, all with researches related to national tourism. He idealizes the First National Conference of Tourism in 1975. This is the period in which he helps to establish the first public bodies of tourism management in some Brazilian States and cities. From 1992 to 2002 – Period in which he helps to create the first post-graduation programs in tourism in Brazil and consolidates himself as the great national tourism theorist, clearly marking his ideas with his conferences, papers, but more particularly with his book Structural Analysis of Tourism (1998). From 2003 to 2018 – Period of full academic and theoretical recognition by his peers. He launches another four books and intensifies the activity of visiting professor in several post- graduation programmes in tourism of Brazil. He assumes his chair in the National Council of Tourism of Brazil and strengthens his work as consultant in the political sphere, particularly in class associations and national tourism organizations. It is during this period that he becomes a member of the Ethics Committee of the World Tourism Organization, representing the Americas.

Selected publications

Lattes (2018) informs that Beni published 55 papers of tourism, the first one in 1973, with the title “National Tourism” (Beni, 1973). His latest paper is called “Limits and possibilities of social inclusion by Policy National Tourism: the case of the Regionalization Program of Tourism” (Beni & Tomazin, 2017). These titles are quite significant, once they clearly exemplify what has taken place in Brazil and in many other countries regarding tourism studies. Firstly, studies are initiated with broad and comprehensive focus, and then after the general analysis stage is over, studies on more detailed themes of the sector are commenced. His most cited paper on Google Scholar (73) is “Policy and strategy of regional development: integrated and sustainable planning of tourism”, of 1999 (Beni, 1999b). In total, five books have been published by Beni. One of them is an organized work, three are complete scientific works written individually and one is a report and analysis of places he visited as a tourist. In order of date and publication, these are the following books: Structural Analysis of Tourism (2963 citations on Google Scholar, 1998(a)); Globalization of tourism: Megatrends of the sector and Brazilian reality (380 citations on Google Scholar, 2004); Policy and planning of tourism in Brazil (401 citations on Google Scholar, 2006(a)); Collecting destinies: perception, 308 A. P. NETTO interpretation of heritage and imagery (unidentified on Google Scholar, Beni, 2007) and; Tourism: strategic planning and management capacity – regional development, production network and clusters (organized work, with 28 citations on Google Scholar, Beni, 2012). Besides books and papers, Beni has published 18 chapters of books and 41 articles in news- papers. It is striking to see the incredible number of 647 papers and conferences in congresses and several events. His first documented conference was in 1964 (Lattes Platform, 2018). Google Scholar (2018) appoints his H index 14 and a total of 4,242 citations. As for awards, he received from the World Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Training the “AMFORHT Awards 2004”, his main international prize. He also received the “Emeritus Researcher 2010 Award” from the Brazilian National Association of Research and Post- Graduate Studies in Tourism (ANPTUR-Brazil) and the “Trophy Roman Wolf for Services Rendered to Community 2003”, from the State of São Paulo Legislative Assembly. Besides these ones, he received another 20 prizes of all kinds in Brazil. The first one was in 1969, from the Rotary Club (Plataforma Lattes, 2018).

Conclusion

For all his work with tourism, the influence of Mario Carlos Beni on the development of this area of knowledge in Brazil is evident. One of his greatest merits is of having been the biggest supporter and initiator of national tourism studies in the early 1970s. He endured the hard time of the 1980s in Brazil, which was called “lost decade” due to the economic crises the country faced, keeping his focus on education in tourism and publicity of the sector’s importance to the nation. During the 1990s, he started to reap the benefits of his work when he saw that the federal government and higher education institutions strengthened their participation in the area.: the government by placing the theme of tourism on the agenda, and higher education institutions by offering new courses of tourism in all states of federation. In 2018 in Brazil, there were 11 master courses in tourism and 4 of doctorate, and in all of them, the presence of Mario Carlos has been somehow remarkable. The words of praise I write in this article are not only because I was one of those he supervised in the doctorate at the University of São Paulo. They express the recognition of all academic sector of Brazilian tourism to this character that, besides opening a field of studies in Brazil, has kept himself faithful to his purpose of developing the area with the quality needed. Added to that is the fact that in his academic and professional work he has always been honest and generous. Honest for always telling clearly what he thought about the opportunities and incongruities of national tourism. Generous for including students and former students in projects and actions, always sharing opportunities. An example of his generosity is the fact that in 2017 he donated his private library, comprised of theses, dissertations, leaflets, magazines and books (around 3000 docu- ments), to groups of research in Leisure and Tourism located at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities at the University of São Paulo. Many of the professors from these groups of research were his students at some stage in their lives. Proof of what I have been telling above is evident in the fact that on 14 April 2018, date of his 80th birthday, his family offered him a huge party. Over 250 people were present, among friends, relatives, personalities of national tourism and a big group of former students and colleagues of tourism who have accompanied his journey since the early 1970s. This party has been one of the best examples of recognition to his work. There was also an atmosphere of farewell, once Beni intends to devote himself to family and grandchildren. He surely knows that the seeds of his thought have been sown for decades and this is the moment to see the fruits being picked, amidst the forest of followers created around him. ANATOLIA 309

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

References

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