São Paulo – At least 2,100 supporters of Algeria will come to Brazil to follow the national team of the Arab country at the World Cup. They will be hosted not only in the cities holding Algerian team matches, but also in municipalities which will not have matches. Algeria will face Belgium on June 17th, in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Against South Korea, the match will be in the city of Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, on June 22nd. The last game of the first phase will be against Russia on June 26th in Curitiba, Paraná.
According to information from the receptive tour operator Latitude 30, which is organizing the arrival of the Algerian supporters, they will be hosted in the cities mentioned above and also in Gramado, in Serra Gaúcha, in Balneário Camboriú, on the coast of Santa Catarina, and in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina’s capital. Algeria’s national team will stay in Sorocaba, in the São Paulocountryside.
The secretary of Tourism and Economic Development of Balneário Camboriú, Ademar Schneider, told ANBA that the Algerian supporters will stay in the city between June 19th and 29th. From June 23rd to 26th alone, they will occupy 1,010 hotel rooms in the city. “It is a large number of tourists for a time of the year which is not high season for us. It will be very good”, he said.
According to Schneider, the Algerian tourists will occupy from 15% to 20% of the 19,000 hotel beds available in the city. The secretary of Tourism expects people from other countries will also visit Balneário Camboriú during their stay in Brazil.
According to the secretary, the city in Santa Catarina hosts around 4.5 million tourists per year. Out of this total, 50% are foreigners. Most of them are Argentinean, Uruguayan, Chilean and Paraguayan. In Schneider’s opinion, the Algerians the Balneário Camboriú due to the city’s tourist structure and experience in receiving foreigners.
“They could have stayed elsewhere, but around a month ago they ended up choosing Balneário Camboriú due to the good infrastructure and the fact that the city is near Porto Alegre and Curitiba (520 km and 220 km distance, respectively), where Algeria will play. It is important for us, because we make a living of tourism. Besides the income they will bring by coming, there is also the marketing, a spontaneous advertisement of Balneário Camboriú”, Schneider said.
These 2,100 Algerian tourists will come to Brazil on charter flights operated by airline Air Algérie. They purchased a tour package from an Algerian company, which chose a French operator and Latitude 30, from Rio de Janeiro, to organize the trip to Brazil.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
