São Paulo – The number of international arrivals in Brazil last year was 6.2 million people, which represented an increase of 2.6% over arrival on regular flights from abroad in 2007. The figures are by Infraero and take into consideration foreigners who entered Brazil and Brazilians who returned to the country.
On totalling arrivals on regular and charter flights, the number grows to 6.4 million passengers. The month of December registered 527,000 arrivals on international flights. According to the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Embratur), most of the tourists who visited Brazil were from South America, Europe and the United States.
Despite Embratur not yet having specific figures for the main countries of origin of tourists arriving in Brazil in 2008, the institute states that the entry of foreigners visiting the Middle East has been growing. In 2006, the number of tourists from the region was 46,461, climbing to 62,020 in 2007.
Another positive figure is the greater inflow of dollars into the country. Accumulated revenues were 5.7 billion reals (US$ 2.5 billion), with growth of 16.8% over 2007, which was 4.9 billion reals (US$ 2.2 billion).
*Translated by Mark Ament
