Along with New year, Carnival is one of the busiest holiday seasons everywhere in Brazil. One of the northeast states was no exception. This year, the 5-day period registered records all round for Ceará tourism, particularly for holiday lets in Fortaleza and hotel occupancy across the state.
Fortaleza holiday lets up 115%
Accommodation was one of the sectors to benefit most from Carnival in Ceará, held this year from 9 to 14 February. Holiday lets in Fortaleza saw a particularly big rise with bookings for those advertised on the Airbnb platform going up by 115%.
The huge increase on last year made Fortaleza one of the top five cities in Brazil for holiday let growth during Carnival. Airbnb representatives reported that Fortaleza was the second most popular destination in Northeast Brazil after Maceió.
According to Airbnb, there are some 1,400 Fortaleza holiday lets registered on the platform. The city is no stranger to big Airbnb figures – in July, bookings for holiday lets went up by 126% year-on-year, the highest in Brazil.
Hotel occupancy reaches new high
One of the reasons behind the boom in Fortaleza holiday lets comes in the high hotel occupancy during Carnival. While the holiday period in 2017 saw occupancy of 81%, this year’s bookings reached 93% in the capital. Faced with the impossibility of getting a hotel room, many visitors turned to holiday rentals, an increasingly popular option throughout Brazil.
Hotels in Ceará state also registered high occupancy levels during Carnival. They averaged 90.6% with the busiest resorts exceeding this. For example, occupancy reached 93.5% in Cumbuco and 92.3% in Porto das Dunas.
Record figures for Ceará tourism
This year’s Carnival period was particularly busy all round. The state of Ceará received 130,000 tourists in total over the celebrations, which represents a hike of 14.5% on figures for last year. Ceará tourism representatives calculate an economic impact of over R$380 million, considerably more than last year.
Analysts believe the increase in both visitor and economic figures reflects the general improvement in the Brazilian economy. Consumer confidence is increasing this year when Brazil is set to register between 2% and 2.8% GDP growth.
Extra flights
Catering for the big increase in visitors to Carnival in Ceará were 32 extra flights. They came from some of Brazil’s largest cities including Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Recife and Belem. Ceará regularly features as a favourite among tourists from southern Brazil who visit the state in search of guaranteed sunshine and its stunning coastline.
Once the Air France-KLM flight hub begins in May with direct flights from Fortaleza Airport to Paris and Amsterdam, Ceará tourism figures will increase still further. After this auspicious start, 2018 promises to be an excellent year for the state.
(Sources: Diario do Nordeste, Opovo, Ceará government)
