For decades, Brazil’s international image has been shaped by its sweeping landscapes, world-famous beaches, Carnival, and destinations that have become globally recognized icons. But another Brazil is emerging for international travelers. It is a country told through its communities, its territories, and the stories that continue to shape its identity.
Rather than focusing solely on landmarks or postcard-perfect scenery, a new generation of travelers is seeking what does not immediately appear in a destination’s most familiar images: the voices of the people who helped build it.
It is within this shift that afrotourism has been gaining momentum as a new way to experience Brazil. More than simply a travel category, it offers an opportunity to connect with places where African heritage remains alive and continues to shape music, cuisine, spirituality, the arts, and traditions passed down through generations.
This vision inspired Brasil DNA, a project created by Gisele Abrahão to introduce the country through its many cultural layers.
Throughout her work promoting Brazil internationally, Abrahão noticed a change in the way travelers, particularly those from the United States and Canada, approached the country. Interest gradually expanded beyond well-known destinations to include the stories, communities, and experiences that help explain how Brazil was shaped.
Brasil DNA was born from that realization. The initiative brings together historic sites, traditional communities, cultural expressions, and heritage destinations that reveal a broader Brazil, one built through the contributions of many peoples and cultures.
According to Abrahão, the growing interest in travel centered on African heritage creates an opportunity to connect stories that share common roots. Among American travelers interested in the African diaspora, Brazil sparks curiosity for the ways African influences crossed the Atlantic and evolved into new cultural expressions across different regions of the country.
That connection can be felt throughout everyday Brazilian life. It lives in the rhythms of drums during community celebrations, in recipes preserved by families for generations, in sacred spaces, and in artistic traditions that continue to evolve.
Afrotourism emerges precisely at the intersection of memory and the present.
The growth of this segment reflects a broader transformation in international travel. Increasingly, travelers are seeking destinations that offer stories to understand, people to meet, and connections that endure long after the journey ends.
For Tânia Neres, Embratur’s Coordinator of Afrotourism, Diversity, and Indigenous Peoples, this shift represents an opportunity for Brazil to strengthen its presence on the international stage. Celebrating cultural diversity has also become a way to empower communities, generate economic opportunities, and create new possibilities for the tourism sector.
Although Embratur’s diversity initiatives also include segments such as LGBTQ+ tourism, afrotourism holds a strategic role because it brings together heritage, memory, creativity, and regional development.
One of Brazil’s greatest distinctions is that its African heritage is not confined to history books. It is still unfolding today.
In São Luís, in the state of Maranhão, that presence can be experienced through the reggae music that fills the streets, religious celebrations, popular cultural traditions, and communities that continue to preserve knowledge passed down through generations. The city tells a story that did not end in the past but continues to be written every day.
In the Amazon, this narrative takes on different dimensions. The role of Black communities in the region’s history remains largely unfamiliar to many international visitors. Along its rivers, within traditional communities, and across ancestral territories, the contributions of Afro-Amazonian populations reveal another layer of Brazil’s cultural diversity.
In the state of Alagoas, at Serra da Barriga, the Quilombo dos Palmares Memorial Park presents one of the most significant chapters of Black history in Brazil. The land where Quilombo dos Palmares once stood preserves the legacy of resistance, organization, and the struggle for freedom led by thousands of people who created one of the most remarkable experiences of liberty in Brazilian history.
Not far away, in the quilombola community of Muquém, another story continues to be shaped by the hands of its residents. Clay transformed into handcrafted ceramics reflects knowledge preserved across generations. Every piece carries techniques, memories, and a profound connection between land and ancestry.
In São Paulo, one of Latin America’s largest cities, a variety of cultural tours offer a different perspective on the city’s development. The story of Carolina Maria de Jesus in Parelheiros, the Black Walking Tour, the Samba Walking Tour, the Liberdade district viewed through its historical origins, and the Bixiga neighborhood, where archaeological research at the Saracura site reinforces the Black presence in the city’s formation, all reveal chapters that remained absent from traditional narratives for many years.
According to Neres, these places offer visitors something that goes far beyond conventional sightseeing. They provide an opportunity to understand how Afro-Brazilian communities helped shape the nation and continue to influence its cultural life.
The growth of afrotourism reflects a global movement toward travel experiences that are more deeply connected to heritage, people, and the meaning of place. In this context, Brazil possesses a unique characteristic: its cultural diversity is not preserved only in archives or memorial spaces. It lives in its streets, its communities, and the people who continue to keep these stories alive.
That is the perspective guiding Brasil DNA.
Created by Gisele Abrahão, the project presents a Brazil that extends beyond its most familiar images. It is a Brazil revealed through its communities, its territories, and the many voices that helped shape the nation.
More than discovering new destinations, travelers are given an opportunity to understand the stories that have shaped Brazil and continue to define its future.
In Brazil, ancestry is not a distant memory.
It walks through the streets, lives within communities, and continues to be written by the people who keep these stories alive.
Reported by: Mary de Aquino
Contact:
Gisele Abrahao – gisele@globalvisionaccess.com
