Brazil packed with travel riches, so why so few tourists
Hoteliers, bloggers say there are many obstacles
SAO PAULO, May 23, (AP): Brazil is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. It has miles of sandy, deserted beaches, and stunning flat-topped mountains. It invented samba. It has massive reserves for native peoples and charming colonial towns built by the Portuguese.
Despite the seeming abundance of riches for travelers, it has a tourism problem. Because while you may have heard about the Amazon or the stunning beaches of Rio de Janeiro, you have probably also heard that Brazil has high crime, was swept by a Zika outbreak and that its politicians have concocted the largest graft scheme in Latin American history.
Most likely you’ve never visited Brazil. Only 6.6 million foreigners did last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism. That’s about half the number that go to the tiny city-state of Singapore, and this in a continent-sized country that the World Economic Forum ranks No. 1 in natural resources and No. 8 in cultural resources. Oh, and that hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“The highest gap between potential in tourism in the world and what’s been realized so far is Brazil,” said Vinicius Lummertz, the president of Embratur, Brazil’s tourism board. “We have (everything) from Xingu (an indigenous reserve) and Indians to Oktoberfest in Santa Catarina.”
In the face of a deep and protracted recession, the government is now hoping to change all that with several measures that aim to nearly double the number of foreign visitors in the next five years. But hoteliers, travel bloggers and others who work in tourism say there are many obstacles.
The government plan includes a law to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of airlines, with the aim of increasing flight routes and driving down the cost of travel. Another plank will allow Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Australians — all of whom need visas to visit Brazil — to apply for visas online, instead of at a consulate.
Cheaper flights and a smoother visa process will address some tourist complaints about Brazil, but Alison McGowan says the plan ignores the most glaring problem: Nobody knows how great Brazil is in the first place.
“People don’t even get as far as (applying for a visa),” said McGowan, the CEO of hiddenpousadasbrazil.com , a guide to inns, boutique hotels and B&B’s in Brazil. “They haven’t got people wanting to go to Brazil yet.”
McGowan and other tourism professionals say the government lacks a coherent campaign to promote Brazil abroad — the real country, not just the cliches of Carnival and soccer great Pele.
Part of the government’s plan is to beef up Embratur. Officials there said they hoped that would lead to a doubling of investment in promotion. Last year, Embratur had a $16 million budget — which the agency said was much less than what other South American countries spend.
McGowan and others said Brazil is particularly bad at reaching modern global travelers who research trips and make reservations online. McGowan called the country’s main tourism portal for foreigners, visitbrasil.com , “a disgrace.”
Lummertz, the president of Embratur, says the government’s plan will help promote Brazil abroad. But he says that the nation’s tourist blues go beyond that. Latin America’s largest nation is still struggling to overcome decades of isolation and remains the most closed of the so-called BRICS economies, he says.
That has repercussions for tourism: High import taxes and other hangovers from isolation make the country expensive for travelers and reduce the quality of goods and services. Few Brazilians speak English, partly because they are unlikely to come across global travelers here.