Recife is a city that attracts tourists throughout the year. Visitors come searching for the beauty of the beaches, bridges and rivers and also intend to see the culture of this city steeped in history, capital of unique musical styles like the frevo and the maracatu. However, the city leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to signposting. Hence, the tourist public suffers with the lack of guidance in some parts of the town.
Even though there are signs with the names of the streets, avenues and neighborhoods, it is not easy to find direction to the most important tourist attractions.
Anyone leaving from Guararapes International Airport is fortunate enough to find good signposting if they take the route along Boa Viagem Avenue. This is where most of Recife’s hotels are located and, as a result, there is a concern to give the tourists the correct information.
Apart from showing the way to the Recife city center and also to the historic city of Olinda, there is also signposting to the Convention Center, to the Sculptures Park, St Felix’s Capuchin Convent (Friar Damião) and also to the neighborhood of Recife. On Agamenon Magalhães Avenue, which is the most important access road between Recife and Olinda, it is also possible to find some signposts showing the way to tourist attractions.
The North Zone
However, if the chosen route does not pass through the hotel area, the visitor will find great difficulty in arriving at the tourist spots. Anyone going to the neighborhood of Recife through the North Zone of the City will not find any signposts to the destination.
On Rui Barbosa Avenue, which is also in the North Zone, there are no signposts to say that the tourist is close to the Museum of the State of Pernambuco. The same is the case in the neighborhood of Recife which includes some of the city’s most popular tourist attractions.
The tourist only finds out that he or she has arrived at the Santa Isabel Theatre, the Campo das Princesas Palace or the Courts of Justice when they finally see a sign in front of the locations. Thus, it is impossible to know if the tourist is going the right way, as there are no signposts along the way.
The same is the case when trying to find the geographic center of the city (Marco Zero). The signposts only appear less than 1 km from the location.
In the neighborhood of Recife the foreign tourist has an easier time because there are several signposts written in English. However, in other parts of town which are also popular with tourists, including parks and markets, there are no translated signs whatsoever.
Transport
Swiss tourist Nicolas Gurgeli, staying in the North Zone of town, found great difficulty in the signposting of roads and tourist attractions. Another obstacle that he found was the lack of information at the bus stops.
“At the bus stops, there is no identification of the buses that stop, and neither of where they are going. For those who do not speak Portuguese, there is a lot of difficulty because the buses do not even say which way they are going. The best idea would be the presence of maps showing where you are and also the routes, showing where the buses are going”.
While on the subject of maps, Mr. Gurgeli said that this kind of information is what he found most lacking during his trip to Recife. He has been over a week in the capital of Pernambuco, and says that in none of the places he visited was it possible to find a touristic map of the city.
For North American visitor Joshua Alvarado the bus trips were also complicated. Even with the aid of a map of the city, he found difficulty to catch the buses out to the tourist attractions.
“I know that the name of the bus I caught to come is the same as when I go back, but as some of them do not say which direction they are going, I do not know which is the correct bus to come back”, he complains.
The Other Side
The Secretariat for Tourism of Recife City Hall has said that one of the priorities of this institution is the investment in tourist information through the expansion of the number of service points for tourists, information available on the Internet, the presence of consultants in the city’s hotels and also tourist and road signposting.
According to the secretariat, there is an executive project for signposting of the most important tourist attractions of the city, which is now being finalized. The next stage will be the hiring of the services of a company for the production and installation of some 500 signs in English and also in Braille.
The project will have an investment of about R$ 1 million and will be implemented through a partnership between the City Hall and the Ministry for Tourism.
highlights
04/05 | News
