ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel trade fair, pronounced Brazil the destination of 2024 at its latest edition in early March. The Brazilian Tourist Minister also received the accolade of Ministry of Tourism in South America for 2023. These recent awards confirm Brazil’s position as one of the emerging holiday destinations for this year.
Brazil is destination of the year
This year’s edition of ITB Berlin saw Brazil receive the Destination of the Year award. Brazil stood out worldwide, with countries such as Armenia, Guyana, Jamaica and Malta also on the shortlist.
The largest travel and tourism exhibition honoured Brazil in its 2024 fair, which also recognised the work of Celso Sabino, Minister of Tourism in Brazil. He received the award for South American Minister of Tourism in the Governance category.
Ceará only state at ITB Berlin
Brazil increased its presence at ITB Berlin this year. Furthermore, Ceará was the only Brazilian state with its own stand.
“We have a huge variety of attractions that appeal to tourists,” said Yrwana Albuquerque, Secretary of Tourism in Ceará. “Our particular focus is on adventure tourism, with kitesurf at the helm.”
Brazil tourism in 2023
Sabino celebrated the achievements and highlighted the positive figures within the Brazilian tourism industry. “The figures for tourism in Brazil in 2023 leave no doubt as to the success of our policies,” he said. “Foreign visitors injected around US$7 billion into our economy last year, ahead of 2024 when we hosted the World Cup.”
Sabino announced that Brazil and the UNWTO intend to set up an office for the UN’s tourism department in Rio de Janeiro. It would be the first in the American continents and Caribbean, and would work on public policy development in the region.
Positive results so far this year
Tourism in Brazil has got off to an excellent start in 2024, with visitor figures already on the up. Recent research calculates that arrivals should increase by 21% in the first quarter. The same study revealed an uptick of 11% in foreign tourists to Ceará.
Domestic travel is also rising, and a Ministry of Tourism found that 37% of Brazilians took a vacation between January and March. Over half of them holidayed in a destination with sunshine and beach.
Northeast Brazil was the preferred region, with 42% of holidaymakers opting for this part of Brazil. Within the Northeast, Bahia and Ceará ranked as top favourites, with 12% and 7% of visitors, respectively.
(Sources: Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, SETUR)
