From the cold of the Alps to the tropical paradise of Bahia: check out the trajectory of Italian Enrico Pelletti and his resort

Almost 500 years after the Portuguese arrived in Porto Seguro, in Bahia, the Italian Enrico Pelletti he discovered the New World a little further south, on Guaratiba beach – and fell in love with the place. He visited the place in the early 1990s, as a tourist, and saw the potential for building a project, Balneário Praia de Guaratiba. Thirty years later, he stands out in the region’s hotel and tourism sector – not only ensuring that the resort continues to be discovered by tourists from all over the world, but also teaching tennis to local children for free.

“I discovered Brazil at the end of 1991. I visited several places in the Northeast – and fell in love with Bahia. I already had the intention of building a tourist village in the country. I met a broker, who recommended Guaratiba to me. It was love at first sight! Fantastic temperature, beach with warm water between 22°C and 24°C all year round… I thought it would be the ideal place to fulfill the dream I had since I was a child: to build a city by the beach”, he says.

Pelletti, who already worked in the real estate construction segment in Italy, took over the project and built the project little by little, with the help of friends from work. The dream came to fruition at the end of 1994, with the launch of the first condominium; the second would come in 1998. In the initial phase of Balneário Guaratiba, Pelletti still lived in Italy – he had business in the country, and his children were still at school. But he came to Brazil every month, until in 2002, with the success of the venture, he and his family moved permanently to Bahia.

Over these three decades, the enterprise grew, with the construction of several tourist structures on the beach – cabins, a shopping mall, courts, football field and lakes –, giving rise to the Guaratiba Group. “When I see a marsh, I see a potential lake. Where there is water there is life”, he states. Today, Balneário Praia de Guaratiba has eight lakes; the largest, built three years ago, is one and a half kilometers long and houses several species of fish. And this structure should continue to grow. “We launched another condominium last year, Mata da Praia. We also continue investing in the construction of infrastructure, and have already planned another condominium”, adds Pelletti.

Infrastructure to live well

Located near the municipality of Prado, around 200 kilometers south of Porto Seguro, Balneário de Guaratiba gradually attracted residents – not only Brazilians, but from all over the world. “We have people from various regions of Brazil, and also from Japan, the United States and Europe”, he states.

With his dream coming to fruition, the businessman began providing the resort with an ecosystem that met the needs of its residents. With increasing investment and dedication, Balneário Praia Guaratiba now has a commerce, with restaurants, pharmacy and a shopping center. “Many people told us that the lack of a place for their children to study prevented them from coming permanently, so we are finalizing a project with our architect to build a school.”

In addition to residents, the resort also attracted tourists and investors. “There are those who choose to have a property here as an investment. In the summer, the resort is packed, especially on New Year’s Eve: this past year, we had more than 20 thousand people here”, he celebrates. There is also the prospect that, in the coming years, the state government will improve access roads to the region, due to demand from investors. Visitors currently arrive at their destination through two airports: Teixeira de Freitas, 80 kilometers away, where the airline Gol operates with a 52-seater turboprop plane, and Porto Seguro, a little further away.

But the spa is not made up of just buildings. A tennis lover, Pelletti brings the sport closer to children in the region. What started with the installation of courts to play his favorite sport resulted in a tennis club. “My hobby is giving free classes to children. And this initiative allows them to access scholarships to the United States. It has already been possible to send more than 20 young people to study abroad thanks to this initiative”, she recalls.

The water challenge

But not everything was positive in the tropical paradise built by Pelletti. After seven years of success for the resort, there was an increase in the Jucuruçu River and the sea in the region between 2003 and 2013 – which significantly reduced the region’s beach area, and consequently cooled the interest of residents and investors in Guaratiba. “For ten years it was a unique fight. People no longer believed in Guaratiba. Every day, every time it was a full moon or a new moon, I worried about whether we had a south wind or a northeast wind. Because, if this wind came in during this new moon or full moon, it would eat up five or ten meters of beach, and then it would take away all of our infrastructure. But we held on, fighting; we never give up. Little by little the water receded, and today we have wonderful beaches. And people started coming back”, he says with pride.

Another period of uncertainty was the Covid-19 pandemic, which devastated the entire world in 2020 and challenged entrepreneurs. However, the decades-long effort to build a village with self-sustainable infrastructure ended up attracting people who chose to stay away from large urban centers in order to avoid contagion. “People started looking for a place where they and their families were safe and could move around more freely.”

Realized dream

Continuously expanding, the resort is the realization of the vision that Pelletti first envisioned more than three decades ago. “Today I am at peace, because the dream has come true. Today the resort generates more than 3 thousand direct and indirect jobs; and the enterprises that have emerged in Guaratiba are also creating jobs. For me, the dream is not just about seeing our venture realized; but seeing the development of the people in the region, of the employees who accompany you – some have been with me here for 25 years. And you see them growing up, sending their children to study in the city – and that’s not easy around here. I believe we accomplished a good task; but she didn’t finish. The story continues,” she concludes.

The Guaratiba Group is managed by Pelletti, his wife Laura Pin and their children, and includes the Mata da Praia and Guaratiba dos Lagos condominiums, the Prestige Resort, the Guaratiba shopping center, the Aloe boutique hotel and spa and the Guaratiba Tênis Clube.

In an interview with IstoÉ – Your Story, Enrico Pelletti details his career with Balneário Guaratiba. Check out the full conversation:

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