Brazilian hotels and resorts feature high on the latest Condé Nast travel accolades. This coupled with recognition of the country’s most beautiful places, news of visa-free travel and a booming flight market make up the latest trends in the Brazilian travel market.
Tourism in Brazil represents one of the world’s markets with the biggest potential. The country has just received an enormous boost in both visitor figures and worldwide exposure through the Rio Olympics. Everything points to excellent short and medium-term perspectives for the Brazilian travel market.
Accolades for the Brazilian travel market
Condé Nast, one of the world’s top travel publications, recently announced the prize winners in its annual Reader’s Choice Awards. In this year’s edition, Brazilian hotels and resorts featured strongly, particularly in the Latin and South America category.
The Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo was voted the eighth best hotel in the world overall in the Condé Nast poll. In the category for Top Resorts, two resorts in Brazil featured in the top ten. The winner in this category was the Unique Garden Hotel and Spa resort, located in Corumbá, southwest Brazil. Another resort – Uxua Casa Hotel and Spa in Trancoso, Bahia – ranked in seventh position.
Most beautiful places in Brazil
Another indication of the strength of the Brazilian travel market comes in the annual ranking of the 20 most beautiful places in Brazil carried out by CNN. In this year’s ratings, the state of Ceará takes two of the top five positions.
Just after Mount Roraima – classed as the most beautiful place in Brazil – comes Canoa Quebrada, located south of Fortaleza and one of the best beaches in Northeast Brazil. CNN highlights this beach’s dunes and sands, common to most of the beaches in Ceará. In fourth position is the capital of the state itself, Fortaleza.
Visa-free travel
A measure that made a major difference to the Brazilian travel market over the Olympic Games was the introduction of visa exemptions for nationals from North America, Australia and Japan. This visa-free travel attracting tens of thousands of tourists to Brazil.
Based on its success the Brazilian government has plans to bring in a visa-waiver programme for these countries on a permanent basis. Brazil is keen to attract more tourism and investment, and one way of doing this is to remove visa barriers.
Initially, there would be a trial period of a year with the view to implementing no visas for US, Canadian, Australian and Japanese tourists on a permanent basis. In return Brazil would look for reciprocation in these other countries as well as China. The removal of visa obligations would considerably enhance the Brazilian travel market, particularly as US citizens currently have to pay US$160 for a visa to travel to Brazil.
Surge in Brazilian flight market
Another strong sector of the Brazilian travel market comes in the form of air travel. All three of the largest US airlines reported an uptick in passenger revenue in Q3 this year in Latin America, driven by a steadily increasing market in Brazil.
American Airlines posted a 1.8 per cent rise in passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) in Latin America. According to the company’s President Robert Isom, this increase was “driven by 25 per cent year-on-year improvement in Brazil”.
For their part, Delta registered a PRASM increase of 1.4 per cent in Latin America where the market accounted for 6.3 per cent of the airline’s business. United also recorded a rise and President Scott Kirby attributed this to “particularly strong results in Brazil”. “The pricing environment to Brazil is far, far better than it was just a few months ago,” he said.
“The Brazilian travel market is undoubtedly maturing steadily,” said Dies Poppeliers, Managing Director of BRIC Group. “The greater sophistication and improved facilities for travellers will add to the country’s appeal and directly enhance the potential for high-end tourism in Brazil.”
An investment company specialising in global real estate opportunities, BRIC Group is currently developing The Coral resort, in Northeast Brazil, a luxury beachfront resort. BRIC Group also offers US real estate investments including turnkey properties in Florida and Houston, and land plots in Florida. BRIC Group has been creating wealth for its clients since 1996 and has offices in Brazil, Dubai (consulting office), Hungary, Spain and the US.
(Sources: Condé Nast, CNN, Reuters, TheStreet)
