Tourism of events in Campos do Jordão: CJCVB strategies to attract events Turismo de eventos em Campo do Jordão: CJCVB estratégias para atrair eventos

The aim of this paper is to present Campos do Jordão, on the easternmost edge of the state of São Paulo, as a privileged city because of its strategic position, climate, fauna and flora. Of all the city’s tourist services, the attraction and promotion of events carried out by the Campos do Jordão and Region Convention & Visitors Bureau (CJCVB) were the only ones analyzed. The methodology used, supported by the exploratory descriptive program, was based on data supplied by the CJCVB and bibliographic research. Besides having several adequate spaces for the operationalization of events, the city also offers the events participants a large number of hotel beds, which emphasizes the contribution of the CJCVB to the generation of revenue from the events attracted and supported in the periods of 2006-2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. A change is evident in the profile of current events in the city, since, in addition to the already consolidated business events, Campos do Jordão has recently hosted sports events, relying on its natural areas, as much as highlighting the city’s creative ability to innovate in order to increase its economical results and reduce the effects of seasonality.


INTRODUCTION
This paper presentsthe city of Campos do Jordão, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, so called by the State Law 1471, of October 29, 1915.It is currently considered a tourist resort, with temperate tropical climate that compares to the Alpine region of Davos Platz, Switzerland.
Campos do Jordão has been through four chronologically well-marked evolutionary cycles, and it is nowadays in its third and fourth cycles. In the two last cycles, tourism and environment, we can notice that the city is experiencing some difficulties with tourist activities, with low rates of hotel occupancy, in contrast to the rising one-day tourism. Such reality requires rethinking the tourist activity as a whole, which demands planning and creativity as, according to Alencar (1998), creativity is a vital factor for long-term innovation and success of any activity or organization. To the author (1998), creativity occurs in the social context and depends on thinking processes deeply rooted in culture in the form of norms, traditions and values, among other aspects, that affect its expression.
Therefore, there is a perceptible attempt at expanding the segment of events, which already has an established structure in the city. Notably, business tourism, the most developed market of events in the city, usually attracts a great flow of people through congresses and conventions especially on weekdays and periods of low season. However, taking advantage of the natural beauty of the city, the market of sports events has been increasing over the last years.
At such moments of search for a new market, creativity, identified as a critical human skill focused and strengthened in favor of the success of the organization, can make a difference, for it helps deal with changes, uncertainties, instabilities and competition, systematically improving innovation (Alencar, 1998).
In this regard, Montes and Coriolano (2003) stress that the promotion of a city image by means of events is becoming more and more common, contributing to the economic development, as well as creating a positive image of the host city as it increases tax revenues, and allowing for the stability of employment levels. To make tourism of events a successful activity, though, it is necessary to guarantee the support, comprehension and partnership of the state, the city, the event promoter, the mass media and the sponsors. To Coutinho & Coutinho (2007) events are tourism multipliers because they usually imply the involvement of two people (the participant and their companion), significantly help reduce seasonality, create a positive image of the host city and mobilize the tourist trade and service providers, generating employment, immediate revenue and flow of foreign currency into the city.
In this sense, creativity and innovation can contribute to the rethinking of tourism in the city. So, we should contemplate the study of processes and relational combinations between external stimuli and memory sites, between positive and negative emotions and between production actions and consumption responses while institutional forms of creation and accumulation of wealth significantly applicable to Tourism as an economic activity of deep social significance (Machado, 2011

METHODOLOGY
This is an exploratory descriptive case study about tourism of events in Campos do Jordão. It is based on bibliographic research and treatment of data provided by the Campos do Jordão Observatory of Tourism (*) , which is just a small part of the set of data previously divulged at a public event held in the Espaço Dr Além on April 19, 2016, to introduce the Observatory of Tourism to the city.
Taking advantage of the tourist potential of the city and aware that Campos do Jordão needs to review its tourist efforts and concentrate on the strengthening of complementary sectors such as the events one, this study sought to analyze the data collected by the Tourism Observatory in search of a more clear view of that market.
1 Apolitical, nonprofit organization that aims to the promotion and widening of the region's tourism potential, increasing the number of tourists coming for business and holiday, supporting the attraction of events and encouraging tourism equipment, projects and partnerships with focus on improving this destination's quality and competitiveness. (Meeting Planner, 2014, p. 9) (*) Aiming to develop a more competitive tourism sector, the Campos do Jordão Observatory of Tourism monitors the economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism using data collected by entities directly or indirectly involved with different segments of tourism in the city. CJCVB is one of those entities and contributes data on tourism of events to that common database. (Translator's note) Therefore, the initiatives that originated the Cycle of Tourism were strengthened under the auspices of the separation between tourists and patients and under the incentive of chemotherapy and outpatient treatment. However, it should be remembered that initiatives to promote the city as a leisure destination had been adopted since the beginning of the 1940's. Therefore, it was an ongoing process, that is, the gradual decline of the sanitary function facilitated the unfolding of the already existent leisure-city function to become more powerful. (Hammerl, 2011) In Campos do Jordão, we can observe that not only the private sector, but also In other words, Campos do Jordão went through a phase of self-discovery, development and exploration as a tourist destination. However, the massification and seasonality of tourism combined with the increasing overcrowding, the insufficient urban infrastructure to attend all the needs and the decrease of quality of the urban spaces resulted in a period of saturation of that activity and, consequently in environmental damages (Duarte et al., 2007).

EVENTS AS BUSINESS IN CAMPOS DO JORDÃO
Events started playing a significant part in the composition of the touristic product intrinsically attending the demands of the entertainment market, leisure, knowledge, relaxationand many other motivations. Differently from hotels, transport and tourism agencies, events work on their promotion and utilization as a whole, becoming a center of attraction towards which gravitate the interests of all those who travel to take part in an event, and local tourism ends up participating actively in the process (Canton, 2009 transport and ancillary services have been utilised or specifically developed". Montes & Coriolano (2003) claim that tourism of events is one of the segments of the tourist "industry" that improves every day, being practiced by people who attend events as much varied as possible with the objective of discussing themes of different interests at congresses, symposiums, conventions, fairs, gatherings, meetings and seminars among others. The authors stress as advantages related to this kind of tourism the fact that it is less sensitive to price, with shorter, more frequent and over the week trips, less subject to seasonality.
In practical terms, when it comes to tourism of events as a market to be explored, the results of creativity and innovation blend together into a sole process targeted at entrepreneurship and the achievement of goals as most of them focus on strategies of survival and/or of anticipation of market needs. Therefore, it can be claimed that creativity and innovation are concepts already integrated into the vocabulary of the economic world and contribute to the inclusion of changes in economy and consequent economic development (Schumpter, 1989apud Nunes, 2011.

For cities that have idle capacity in the hotel industry, as is the current case in
Campos do Jordão, tourism of events can contribute to increase the sector's occupancy rates and sustainability as a business. Along the same line, Coutinho & Coutinho (2007) explain that the city can find a great opportunity of developing and warming up its economy through the promotion of events. Hoeller (2002, apud Coutinho & Coutinho, 2007 3) reports that the attraction and promotion of events are considered the sector that offers more economic and social return to event host countries and cities.
Canton (2009) explains that we can divide tourism of events in as many types as the nature and category of the events that justify them. In this perspective, the participants in each kind of event favor and potentialize the destinations that have adopted it. On average, a tourist of events triples their daily expenses and extends their stay to five days in the destination, differently from the tourist of leisure, who spends on average US$80 and has a three-day stay (Coutinho & Coutinho, 2003).
In the specific case of business tourism understood as "all the activities that result in traveling under the responsibility of a legal entity […] that absorbs all the expenses anticipated in its policy on travel expenses […] with the intention of ensuring its productivity while away from its working habitat" 2 (Wada, 2009, 215), the result can be even more far-reaching. for promotional campaign established by the company). In the present paper, with Campos do Jordão as basis of data analysis, the focus falls on the second group, the events one.
To Gonçalves (2008), authenticity is one of the most relevant elements to be considered in the discussion of creativity applied to tourism. Apparently, successful cities have achieved their affirmation through the identification and strengthening of those local factors that cannot be imitated and thoroughly differentiate them from other places. It is essential, then, for Campos do Jordão to find and value its most genuine and authentic assets. The constant organization of different kinds of events is evident in the city.
Lately, however, sports events, a market niche in constant rise, stand up mainly because of therelationship between nature and sportsthey provide for their participants.That typology of events is attracting investors who see tourism of sports events as an alternative media to disseminate their image and narrow bonds with their clients, real or potential. Carneiro (2000) stresses that the emotion of the sports show unconsciously transfers to both supporters' and fans' minds, which highlights the fact that sports allow for the feedback of image as what stays in memory is the sponsor's brand and product in association with the emotional ingredients of the sport.

CAMPOS DO JORDÃO AND REGION CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
Ever since its foundation, Campos do Jordão and Region Convention & Visitors Bureau has sought to consolidate the city as a destination. Its main objective has always been the professionalization of leisure tourism and tourism of events. For that purpose, it countedon the support of associate companies and of the Room Tax 3 collection, despite not being compulsory. The Room Tax collection and the associates' monthly fees pay for administrative expenses and actions to promote the tourist destination.
Among the predominant activities of Convention and Visitor Bureaux (CVBs) stand out marketing and sales actions (Getz, Anderson & Sheehan, 1998, p. 331) and Morrison, Bruen & Anderson (1998, p. 338), define CVBs functions as follows:  Develop an image to position the city in the market place as an attractive destination for meetings and visitors;   Co-ordinate the constituent elements of the industry and public sector;  Work with meeting and group planners;   Represent both buyers (demand) and sellers (supply) so that an autonomous organization is required in order to avoid conflicts of interest;  Provide leadership for the industry. On the other hand, among the services offered by CJCVB, as a services provider, we can highlight: preparation of destination's application dossiers, organization and reception of technical visits designed to select premises and equipment, recommendation of and contact with service providers, lodging pool structuration according to event's profile and specific needs, collection of price list and structuration by 'price adhesion' or 'price survey', reservation of event-customized online platform, organization of customized tours and, according to event's audience profile, organization and coordination of 'friendly restaurant', 'friendly commerce' campaigns, and 'hospitality table' service within events, availability of tourism information material at events' premises, presentation of petitions for public sector's support, establishment of partnerships with airport services for transfers between São The data analysis also supplied relevant information on the average duration of the events in the respective periods: 2006-2008, 4 days, and 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, 3  The increasing market of sports events stands up in the data analysed, in spite of the fact that all the first five events of that tipology occurred only in 2012. In the Calculations presented in the data gave a new dimension to the direct economic impact of the events assisted and supported by CJCVB on the city in the respective periods. At last, CJCVB reported the total revenue in the periods: R$219,398,639.52 (BRL) (the number of event days multiplied by the average daily expenses). Therefore, it can be concluded that events are of utmost importance to promote the touristic activity in Campos do Jordão, thus constituting an excellent alternative to face the challenges the city has been experiencing in the touristic area.

CONCLUSION
It is clear that events are agents of improvement on the touristic activity in Campos do Jordão, since they encourage the use of existing spaces for their organization and the occupancy of hotels, and generate revenue to food and drink establishments. Most frequently, events are held in periods of low touristic demand in the city, which enhances the use of the touristic infrastructure otherwise idle, and contributes to soften the effects of seasonality. We share the same believes as Oklobzija (2015) such as events are important motivators of tourism, and they greatly influence the development of a destination. Their roles and impacts within tourism have been well documented in tourism related literature, but it was only a few decades ago that "event tourism" became established as an independent discipline in both the tourism industry and in the research community; event studies were considered an unnecessary and perhaps irrelevant idea until the academics doing event-related research published great number of papers and books on the subject of events, as well as established journals and conferences that are specialized in events. Therefore, the evolution of tourism and tourism several segments in Campos do Jordão need to be analyzed, carefully studied and evaluated in order that an effective long term strategy focused on results may be designed, leaving short-sighted approaches for minor actions, with less impact in the city. This is an important area for Brazil. According the Mtur (2017), last year we had more than 900 events happening in Brazil, mostly with cultural and artistic characteristics (303), religion celebration (149)  Note that the attraction of those events to Campos do Jordão must be understood as an innovative action in the sense that, at the same time that it minimizes seasonal effects, it also appears as a creative activity that allows for the exploitation of that tourism segment in the city. In this sense, it is also noteworthy the increase in the number of appropriate spaces for events in the city and the fact that a lot of the events attracted happened there more than once due to the abundant offer of beds in the city.
Once the city already has a solidified, well-known structure for business tourism, it is worth noticing the evolution of a new events typology, sports events, taking advantage of the city's climate and natural environment, as innovative factors to the promoters of those actions. In spite of the evolution of the sector of events, the city still needs to prepare to meet future challenges, mainly in what concerns the professionalization of that sector, but this is a new area of study to be explored.
Every destination that wants to improve its tourist attractiveness should make detailed plans for the development of tourism. These plans should not only incorporate, but also, focus on strategic planning of events if they want to realize the full potential of event tourism. The events that take place in a certain destination should be systematically planned and developed, and should be established as tourist attractions, catalyst for further development, image builders and animators of the destination. The more recognizable events the destination has, the more it is attractive for the tourists.
The key of their success lies in the support of the accommodation facilities of an appropriate standard, the high level of cooperation between tourist agencies, the availability of specific information about events and follow-up activities, and most importantly, proper marketing activities (Oklobzija, 2015).