July promises to be an excellent month for tourism in Ceará, a state already leading Northeast Brazil in the creation of tourism-related jobs. Along with high hotel occupation, holiday lets in Ceará are booming as Brazilians continue to choose to holiday in this part of Brazil.
The Ceará Tourist Board (SETUR) estimates that Ceará will welcome 364,000 tourists during the month of July. This influx of visitors is expected to generate an income of R$1.2 billion for the state with each visitor spending an average of R$2,000.
SETUR bases its calculations on hotel occupation in the state, which is around 77 per cent so far. Hotels continue to be the favourite option for accommodation in Ceará, but tourist board officials highlight the increase in holiday lets in Fortaleza. “We had a look at holiday let portals and found one with 695 apartments in Fortaleza and all were fully booked for July,” explained José Valdo Mesquita, head of research at SETUR.
Northeast Brazil regularly features as the Brazilians’ favourite holiday destination. In the latest monthly survey on holiday intentions carried out by the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, the Northeast occupies first position with 42.7 per cent of those interviewed selecting this region as their preferred holiday location. Northeast Brazil lies considerably ahead of its nearest competitor, the Southeast, with a 27.9 per cent share of the poll.
Within the Northeast, Ceará stands out for tourism-related employment. A recent report published by the Brazilian Ministry for Employment found that within Northeast Brazil, Ceará had the highest rate of new employment in the tourist industry. In the year to May, 13,890 new jobs were created in the state representing 38 per cent of the total for the region. Stand-out sectors for new employment were hotels and restaurants. Just over 9,000 new tourism jobs were filled in Fortaleza between June 2014 and May this year, a sharp contrast to the job losses recorded in the tourism sector in other cities in the Northeast such as Recife and Salvador.
Within the Northeast, Ceará stands out as a particular favourite among holidaymakers from Sao Paulo and other locations in the south of Brazil. Ceará’s year-round warm climate has huge appeal for Brazilians in the south seeking to escape the cold winter weather at this time of year. Demand for holidays in Ceará is such that the largest tour operator in Latin America, CVC, has increased its holiday packages during July. Holidaymakers from Sao Paulo can now benefit from an extra 8-day holiday package in Ceará.
Sources: Setur, Brazilian Ministry of Tourism
