Tourism in Brazil
Tourism in Brazil is a growing sector and key to the economy
of several regions of the country. The country had 5.17 million visitors
in 2012, ranking in terms of the international tourist arrivals as the
second main destination in
South America, after
Argentina, and third in
Latin America after
Mexico and
Argentina.
[1] Revenues from international tourists reached
US$6.6 billion in 2012, continuing a recovery trend from the
2008-2009 economic crisis.
[2]
In terms of the 2015
Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index
(TTCI), which is a measurement of the factors that make it attractive
to develop business in the travel and tourism industry of individual
countries, Brazil ranked in the 28st place at the world's level, third
in the
Americas, after
Canada and
United States.
[4][5]
Brazil main competitive advantages are its natural resources, which
ranked 1st on this criteria out of all countries considered, and ranked
23rd for its cultural resources, due to its many
World Heritage sites.
The 2013 TTCI report also notes Brazil's main weaknesses: its ground
transport infrastructure remains underdeveloped (ranked 129th), with the
quality of roads ranking in the 121st place, and quality of air
transport infrastructure in 131st; and the country continues to suffer
from a lack of price competitiveness (ranked 126th), due in part to high
and increasing ticket taxes and airport charges, as well as high and
rising prices more generally. Safety and security have improved
significantly, ranking in the 73rd place in 2013, up from the 128th
position in 2008.
[5]
Foreign tourists mainly come from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay,
Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica,
Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, US, Canada, China, South Korea, Japan,
Australia and Europeans from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, United
Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and Russia