Last week, with only slightly over one year to go until the 2015 Rotary International Convention, the city of São Paulo welcomed a delegation of 30 voluntary Rotarians from a number of countriesincludingChina, South Korea, Nigeria, the United States, Uruguay, Cuba, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, the Philippines and Germany. The President of Rotary International, Gary Huang, and his wifeCorinna, along with Brazilian members of the Host Organizing Committee – HOC, accompanied the group.
These volunteers will be responsible for promoting São Paulo among their peers around the world in order to attract as many Rotarians and their companions as possible to the International Convention that expects to receive more than 35.000 participants. “The mission we shared with SPTURIS (São Paulo Tourism) was to help them plan their schedule for these visits and recommend our associates, event venues and tourist sights in the city,” explainedToni Sando, President of SPCVB.
Specialist city guide Flavia Liz accompanied the group on a tour that took them around São Paulo and showed them a range of attractions such as Ibirapuera Park, city foundation sitePateo do Collegio, the Old Center, the Municipal Market where they sampled the produce and some of its famous snacks prepared on the spot, the Soccer Museum (Museu do Futebol), and ended with a technical visit to Anhembi Park, the venue hosting the Convention in 2015.
SPTURIS and SPCVB gave presentations to the delegation and confirmed their presence at the Convention in Sydney in June 2014, where, with the support of Embratur, São Paulo will promote itself.
