São Paulo – In order to attract more foreign tourists to Brazil, the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Embratur), an organisation linked to the Ministry of Tourism, launched a new digital campaign last week to promote the country abroad. In all, 12 websites and portals will air advertisements that are part of the Brazilian campaign until end of this year. Total investment is 3.9 million reals (US$ 2.1 million).
The campaign’s adverts include sponsored links on Google and Yahoo, with 3,000 keywords linked to Brazil, videos on Youtube, in large communication vehicles such as the NY Times (United States), El Pais (Spain), CNN (United States), La Nacion (Argentina), in social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and on the websites of airlines TAM, American Airlines and Tap, among others.
According to the Marketing director of Embratur, Walter Vasconcelos, the number of tourists that come to Brazil from each of the countries is one of the reasons for which the campaign is being promoted in certain markets, such as the United States, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Italy, the United Kingdom, among others. “But nations regarded as potential tourist-generating countries are also in the list,” stated the director by e-mail.
According to him, the Embratur has not promoted advertising campaigns in the Arab market, but maintains a relation program with those countries. Vasconcelos said that in May this year, the institute attended trade fair Emirates Holidays World, in Dubai.
Two days of the event were exclusively geared at tourism industry professionals from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and one was targeted at end users interested in knowing travel destinations. The director also said that Emirates Airline offers seven weekly flights between São Paulo and Dubai.
The growing use of the Web as a source of information and as a medium for purchasing packages, air tickets and other tourist services was one of the reasons that led the Embratur to increase investment in digital media.
Apart from the campaign, the Embratur has also launched a new site (www.brasilnetwork.tur.br), entitled Brazil Network, which is available in seven different languages (Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, German and Italian), and offers tools for user interaction and several browsing possibilities for gaining greater knowledge of Brazil as a destination.
The new site also provides a collection of over 6,000 high-definition images, as well as videos and a file download area to provide support to professionals who promote Brazil abroad.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
