Giuliana Napolitano
São Paulo – If Brazilian performance in the tourism sector is well below what the government and businessmen desire, results regarding the Arab countries are even more worrying. In both cases, though, growth is expected for coming years.
In 2002, Brazil received 3.8 million tourists. Of this total, only 7,100, or 0.2%, came from the Middle East (except for Israel). The Brazilian government expects to arrive at a flow of 9 million foreign visitors in 2007, and to multiply the number of visitors coming to Brazil by at least five times.
"We want to increase the number of tourists from all destinations by 125%. But, in the case of the Middle East, as the figures are very low and the market has a great potential, we are expecting a flow five times larger," stated official Brazilian Tourism Agency (Embratur) president Eduardo Sanovicz, in an interview to ANBA.
The first step is to establish Embratur and Tourism Ministry participation in the Brazilian Week & Trade Exhibition, scheduled for December 7 to 9, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the main commercial and tourist pole in the Arabian Gulf.
According to Sanovicz, eight companies in the Brazilian tourist sector should participate in the fair, among them Varig Travel, and Brazil Guide Turismo. The objective, he informed, is to "increase the volume of tourists to Brazil, diversify the reasons that might bring visitors come to the country, and also capture Arab investment for the tourist infrastructure area (hotels, events, etc.)."
To attract Arab funds, the Tourism Ministry will present a series of projects in the area during the fair in Dubai. One of them will be the Cabo Branco Tourist Project, a hotel complex to be built in João Pessoa, capital of the northeastern state of Paraíba. The state government intention with the project, which will occupy an area of over 100 hectares, surrounded by 517 hectares of Atlantic Forest and sand cliffs, is to compete with the Costa do Sauípe and Porto de Galinhas tourist complexes respectively in the northeastern states of Bahia and Pernambuco.
Direct flights
During the trip to the Arab countries, Sanovicz said that he will also be traveling to Beirut, in Lebanon, to meet the Middle East Airlines (MEA) president. The company recently announced the possibility of creating a flight between São Paulo and Beirut, with a stop in Ivory Coast.
The new service is seen as one more factor to stimulate tourism between the areas. This is due to the fact that there are no direct routes between Brazil and the Middle East – to travel to the region, it is necessary to make a connection in some European airport.
The service will be unique. There are currently no direct routes between Brazil and the Middle East, a fact that is considered one of the main causes for the low flow of tourists between the two regions.
Lack of knowledge
Another of the reasons for low tourist exchange between Brazil and the Arab countries is the lack of knowledge – as happens in various sectors of the economy. Sanovicz himself, who has been operating in the tourist industry for 16 years and currently heads the organization responsible for Brazilian promotion abroad, says he does not know the Arab market."
I have never been in the Middle East on business," he stated. "But our intention is to return from this tour of the Arab world with information that will make it possible for us to direct our strategy to the region," he pondered.
Marketing
As a general rule, Brazil receives few foreign tourists. In 2002, the flow was only 3.8 million visitors, says the World Tourism Organization (WTO). In comparison, in the same period, Mexico received almost 20 million.
On the international ranking, Brazil is behind Tunisia, which received almost 5 million tourists last year, South Africa (6.6 million) and the United Arab Emirates (5.4 million).
In the first years of the Real Plan, the Brazilian economic plan put in place in 1994, which reduced inflation and established parity between the Brazilian real and the dollar, the number of international trips rose, making the tourism trade balance (the difference between tourism revenue and tourist expenses abroad) registered a deficit of almost US$ 3 billion. Last year, this balance was positive by US$ 740,000, but the government believes this figure may rise.
For this purpose, one of the first measures taken by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva when he came into office was the creation of the Tourism Ministry – a portfolio that used to be together with Sports. "This was a novel strategy," states Sanovicz. At the same time, he added, "the government decided to make Embratur more professional."
"Nowadays Embratur takes care exclusively of Brazilian promotion as a tourist destination. We therefore believe that tourism will grow," states Sanovicz. "Tourism must be seen as another economic activity which needs marketing and promotion. In the past, this industry was not explored correctly, but now it is," he guaranteed.
Last year, the largest part of foreign travelers coming to Brazil was from South America: 1.5 million. In second came Europe, from where 1.4 million tourists came. Then come North America (753,000), Asia (81,000), Africa (31,000), the Middle East plus Israel (28,000), Oceania (26,000), and Central America (21,000).
