Brazil: A bright spark at travel summit

As the president of Brazil kicked off the Global Travel and Tourism Summit in Brazil, leaders in the hospitality industry looked to the country’s resilience for leadership.

 

"It is one of the country’s that is moving ahead," said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC), "There are new leaders here that want change."

This was reaffirmed by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil who opened the ninth annual event in the city of Florianopolis, south of Sao Paulo in front of several hundred delegates from across the globe. 

 

It is the first time the WTTC is holding the event in Latin America and comes at a time when the travel industry faces the tripartite challenge of economic decline, financial restrictions and the fear of a swine flu pandemic.

 

"The worst moment of the crisis has already happened for our country," affirmed Lula da Silva at a press conference on Thursday. "In March we started to see a recovery in the economy... (and) we have a great demand for domestic tourism."

 

The president highlighted the fact that infrastructure investments into roads and airports will boost Brazil’s potential as a tourism destination. Currently, tourism turns over US$40 billion for the Brazilian economy and creates around six million job opportunities a year.

 

"The revenue generated by tourism has risen by 132 percent in the last five years, to US$5.8 billion in 2008, up 16.8 percent on 2007, which had been the best year until then," said Jeanine Pires, president of EMBRATUR.

 

by Nick Easen