Recife – The government of Brazil’s Pernambuco state is betting it will succeed in bringing to its capital city, Recife, the aerospace hub that conglomerate Latam is planning to have in the Brazilian Northeast. The conglomerate comprises the airlines LAN, from Chile, and TAM, from Brazil. “I believe we have the best technical qualifications,” state secretary for Tourism Felipe Carreras told the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil during a meeting in Recife. The diplomats spent three days visiting Pernambuco last week.
Recife is competing to host Latam’s facility with local capitals Fortaleza, in the state of Ceará, and Natal, in Rio Grande do Norte. According to Carreras, the choice will be announced in December this year and the hub should go on line in December 2016. He added that the project should see R$ 4 billion (US$ 1 billion) in investment, create 10,000 jobs, and connect the chosen city with 32 different countries.
In case Recife is selected, international flight numbers will soar, since at this time its Guararapes Airport only offers flights to six foreign destinations: Buenos Aires, Praia, in Cape Verde, Miami, Frankfurt, Panama City, and Lisbon.
In 2014, Recife’s Airport handled 7.19 million passengers, including arrivals and departures, but only 301,000 of them were on international flights. But the facility has a much higher capacity, at 16.5 million passengers, according to its manager, the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero).
Pernambuco shows great promise when it comes to tourism. Visitors are drawn in by its scenic beaches, by historical cities like Olinda and Recife itself, and by big public celebrations like Carnival, in February, and São João, in June. The overwhelming majority of tourists, however, are domestic travellers. Proof of this is the fact that last year, domestic arrivals and departures amounted to close to 6.9 million, according to Infraero.
The International Marketing executive at the government-run Pernambuco Tourism Company (Empetur), Carolina Ramalho, gave the ambassadors a presentation designed to advertise the state to foreigners. The diplomats also met with local tour operators.
The delegation that travelled to Pernambuco included the ambassadors of Palestine, Ibrahim Alzeben (who is also the Council’s dean), of Oman, Khalid Al Jaradi, of Qatar, Mohammed Al-Hayky, of Tunisia, Sabri Bachtobji, of Libya, Khaled Dahan, of Mauritania, Abdellahi Kebd, of Sudan, Ahmed Elsiddig, of the Arab League Árabe, Nacer Alem, the chargé d’affaires of the embassy of Morocco, Mohamed Boulmani, the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Marcelo Sallum, its CEO, Michel Alaby, and Lucas Frota Pinheiro, a diplomat with the Middle East Division of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
