REPORT - ITB 2006, BERLIN: In many ways, Brazil has treated the travel business differently from other destinations in Latin America because the business is not the country’s leading export market. In fact it is only about fifth in importance.

However, since 2002, the Brazil Government has started to pay more attention to the promotion of inbound tourism. Despite the country’s size, it currently counts only 5 million visitors a year (4.7 million in 2004), only about 1 million more than Argentina, and tiny compared with Mexico’s 21 million. In hotels, for instance, only about 20% of their guest business is from international visitors; the rest is domestic.

However, the government has now said that, for 2007, it aims for 9 million foreign visitors and 65 million domestic travellers. It also hopes that this will provide 1.2 million jobs.

For this year, a huge promotional campaign is planned – with a budget of EUR100 million. However, the target is quite wide – with no fewer than 18 target markets, in all the major regions, and all the main producing markets. Some observers believe that Brazil would do better at concentrating on fewer markets – or at least those with direct air connections to the country.

The growth in visitors in 2004 was a strong 16%. Preliminary estimates point to another year of double-digit growth in 2005. With Argentina counting around 11% growth in the first nine months, and some other smaller destinations even higher percentage growth, this highlights the fact that Latin America is performing really well.

In the next three years, hoteliers expect that about 50 hotels will be added to the country’s accommodation stock, of which 50% would be in the northeast of coun