By Arkady Petrov
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Most of the foreign tourists who visited Brazil in 2018 intend to return, according to the International Tourist Demand results.
The study conducted by the Economic Research Institute Foundation (FIPE) evaluated the profile, habits, and perception of 39,000 travelers of different nationalities, where 95.4 percent of respondents reported that they intend to return to Brazil.
Hospitality was the best-rated topic, with a 97.9 percent approval, followed by accommodations (96.7 percent), gastronomy (95.9 percent), and restaurants (95.8 percent).
There were 6,621,376 international arrivals, an increase of 0.5 percent compared to 2017. The internet is the primary source of information for tourists coming to Brazil, where international transportation services, lodging, and travel packages are the most purchased.
Argentines are top of the visitors ranking, followed by Americans and Chileans.
The primary motivation for travel is leisure, while trips for business, events, and conventions have dropped. “Data show that the business tourist has spent more than a leisure tourist, so we need a strategic plan to attract these tourists more effectively,” said the Minister of Tourism, Marcelo Álvaro Antônio.
Rio de Janeiro leads as the most sought after destination for leisure tourists, ahead of Florianópolis and Foz do Iguaçu. When it comes to business trips, São Paulo ranks first.
The Minister stressed the need to boost domestic tourism, which is stagnant. “On the National Tourism Plan, we aim to include at least forty million more Brazilians in domestic tourism, and for this purpose, we need to reduce the cost of airfare, for instance, which is currently very expensive,” he said.
“This can only be solved by competition between companies; we need five or six more airlines bringing this competition and then we will be able to increase the number of routes and destinations and, in particular, reduce the price of tickets mainly through low-cost flights,” said the minister.