Brazil is a huge country, full of natural beauty, more than 5,000 miles of beaches along its coastline, the largest tropical forest in the World: Amazon, rich culture, and a warm and welcoming people. The perfect ingredient to develop tourism as a means of economic and human development. As a young economist in the early 1970´s, I decided to invest in this new sector. During 15 years I worked for the São Paulo State Tourism Office and for the National Tourist Board of Brazil. In 1989, I decided to establish myself as a tourism entrepreneur and founded Havas Creative Tours, an incoming tour operator at the time, now a Destination Management Company – DMC. 32 years later I am proud to say that we have a well-established brand, known and respected throughout the World. We were 4 persons when we started, but the company grew along the years. I am very proud to say that my daughter, Rachel Havas, joined the Havas team in 1994 and is today the managing director of the company.
Havas Creative Tours has many great projects that materialized and operated. From FITs to groups, to cruise ships’ shore excursions, from brochure tours series to large congresses and MICE groups. Today we have loyal clients from Tokyo to Brussels, from Budapest to New York, from Paris to Chicago. Several started back in 1989. Special interest tours became part of our expertise, too, such as continued education projects for senior citizens of the USA, business opportunities for MBA alumni of prestigious USA Universities, architectural groups, art groups. All these in partnership with renowned travel companies of different countries: USA, France, UK, Israel, Japan, Hungary, to name a few. Mega events are also part of our portfolio: The World Youth Day with the Pope, in 2013, Fifa World Cup Brazil 2014, Rio Summer Olympics 2016.
Two special dates and events are dear to my heart:
The Celebration of the 10th anniversary of Havas Creative Tours in 1999 at the iconic Copacabana Palace Hotel, now a Belmond property, was a landmark of the local tourism industry for years.
The celebration of the 30 years of Havas Creative Tours in 2019, again gathering friends and business partners from the industry
Francisco Havas
President