São Paulo – To attract more Arab tourists to Brazil, the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Embratur) should promote the country at Emirates Holidays World, a fair to take place in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in May. This is the third time that Brazil participates in the event. "The Arab market is very important to us," stated the Business Tourism and Events director at Embratur, Marcelo Pedrosa.
The fair, which is organised by Emirates Holidays, a company that trades tourist packages and belongs to Emirates airline, has 400 travel agents who have an opportunity to disclose their tourist destinations. In the case of Brazil, representatives from the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Amazonas and Paraná should participate in the event. "All of these destinations area already included in the Emirates Holidays catalogue," said Pedrosa.
According to him, Embratur started participating in the fair since the inauguration of direct Emirates flights to Brazil, in 2007. The public, mostly agents and travel operators, is from several countries, mainly in Asia and the Middle East. "Our operation in this market is focussed on the Emirates flight," said Pedrosa. The director is also betting on the travel of Arab tourists on flights from South Africa and Turkey, by Turkish Airlines, which should start operating in São Paulo in April.
"In the short run, we are not going to have a great number of direct flights to the region, but we may work with connections and flights from regions that are near," said Pedrosa. According to him, Emirates is very pleased with the occupation of the Dubai-São Paulo route. "The idea is to intensify our participation in this market and to generate more [passenger] volume," he added.
Apart from Emirates Holidays, Embratur has already participated in other tourism events in the Emirates, like the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) fair and the World Travel & Tourism Council Summit (WTCC), last year. The Embratur president, Jeanine Pires, participated in the latter. It brings together investors in the sector and this year should take place in Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina. "There are many investment opportunities in infrastructure in Brazil. The country currently offers greater security, mainly in the real estate sector," said the director.
According to him, Brazil is placing itself among the main tourism economies and, with the 2014 Cup, which should be hosted by the country, new investment demand should arise. Pedrosa made this statement yesterday (17), at the 7th Panrotas Forum.
Airlines
The forum also included the participation of airlines. Despite the crisis, Brazilian companies should continue investing this year. According to the president at TAM airline, David Barioni Neto, the company target for 2009 is to open a new route to Johannesburg, in South Africa, to end the year with 132 aircraft in operation and to proceed with investment plans of US$ 6.9 billion up to 2018. To the president of Webjet, Wagner Ferreira, there should be 5% growth in domestic demand this year.
According to the president of Azul, Pedro Janot, the company should end the year having transported 1.8 million passengers and should continue with its US$ 600 million plan for investment in Brazil in 2009. The president of Trip airline, José Maio Capriollo, also guaranteed the company plans to invest US$ 200 million this year should be maintained. "It would be imprudent not to invest," he said.
In the case of Gol airline, the company president, Constantino de Oliveira Júnior, believes that ending this year in the black should be hard, mainly due to the fact that scheduled investment in aircraft orders takes place in advance and it is hard to cancel orders due to changes in the economic scenery. Therefore, says the executive, the company should end the year with 108 aircraft, against 104 last year.
Cup
The Brazilian minister of Tourism, Luiz Barreto, who also participated in the forum, bets on the 2014 World Cup to improve the quality of the sector in Brazil. "The Cup is one of the main exhibition opportunities of Brazil to the world," he said.
The Ministry’s target is to reach 2014 with 65 tourist destinations highly qualified to supply tourists. "It should be a great challenge," said Barreto, who signed an agreement with Roberto Marinho Foundation in January for the qualification of 80,000 people for the tourism sector.
With regard to the international crisis, the minister stated that the country should keep its feet on the floor. "The financial crisis obliges us to live with our feet on the ground. With the reduction of the GDP in the last quarter of 2008, forecasts for growth of the Brazilian economy in 2009 are being re-evaluated," he said.
No matter, in the tourism sector, the minister said that Brazil has been gaining ground. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, in which tourist competitiveness and attractiveness is shown, Brazil stands out in the top position in South America, in second in Latin American and in fifth in the Americas. In the case of a study of the main tourist economies of the WTTC, the country rose from the 14th position, in 2008, to the 13th this year.
Apart from that, business tourism in the country has also been growing, currently representing 30% of the tourist volume that comes to Brazil. In 2007, tourism generated revenues of US$ 39 billion, which represented 2.6% of the GDP. "It is the fifth main item in the Brazilian export basket. This is a very strong industry that moves the economy very much," said the minister.
According to him, despite the current conjecture, tourism has grown and this year the ministry still bets on growth of the market. "There are almost 100 million Brazilians participating in the consumer market," he said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
