São Paulo – The number of foreigners who visited Brazil in 2010 was 7.8% greater than in 2009, rising from 4.8 million visitors two years ago to 5.16 million last year. Of this total, around 27% came to the country on business.
The South American nations were those that contributed most to the number of tourists visiting Brazil. The Argentineans were in the first place in the visitor ranking, with 1.4 million tourists in 2010, against 1.2 million in 2009. Uruguay and Chile, which were respectively in the 6th and 11th position in 2009, rose to the 4th and 6th positions. Paraguay increased the number of tourists heading to Brazil from 180,000 to 194,000, growth of 7.7%.
The United States are also among the countries that increased the volume of tourists visiting Brazil. Last year, there were 641,300 North Americans, 6.25% more than in 2009, when 604,000 tourists came from the United States.
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are still the main gateways into the country. The city of São Paulo, the main destination for business tourists, received two million visitors in 2010, whereas the city of Rio de Janeiro, the main leisure destination, received 983,000.
Paraná, with 725,000 tourists, and Rio Grande do Sul, with 654,000, are the states that received most tourists by land, mostly from the Mercosur.
*Translated by Mark Ament
