Agência Brasil
Brasília – This summer, forecasted foreign arrivals in the northeastern Brazil has broken records. The estimated increase in charter flights is 133%, in relation to the season last year, when average arrivals totaled 18 flights per week. This year, in seven Northeastern cities, 42 foreign flights are arriving every week, coming from 14 countries.
According to the official Brazilian Tourism Agency (Embratur), this result is due to a return of visits by Argentine tourists, after the economic crisis that the country has been facing. Apart from that, a partnership between Embratur, the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero), and the Northeastern Integrated Tourism Commission (CTI-NE) has been promoting Brazil on the foreign market and consolidating the Northeast as a tourist destination.
According to Embratur, the partnership with Infraero has also permitted an increase in aircraft cargo compartments for the export of perishable products from the Northeast to the countries the tourists come from.
This summer, Argentina is the country sending the largest number of tourists to Brazil: ten flights, five times more than last summer. Portugal is the second country on the list, nine flights, three more than last year. The other countries are Scandinavia, with five flights; Italy, Holland and Uruguay, with four; Chile, three; Spain, two; France and Switzerland, one each. The Czech Republic, Bolivia and French Guiana have, for the first time, a flight each to the region.
Natal (in the state of Rio Grande do Norte), Fortaleza (in Ceará state) and Porto Seguro (in Bahia), drawn, are the destinations receiving the largest number of arrivals: 11 per week. Then come Salvador (Bahia), Maceió (Alagoas), Recife (Pernambuco), and Aracaju (Sergipe).
According to the CTI-NE, this year it is expected that around 16 million Brazilian and foreign tourists should visit the region.
