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The government of Brazil will bet on South America, notably Argentina, to promote the tourism movement this year. The main partner of Mercosur will be granted almost half of the R$ 11 million to be invested by the Ministry of Tourism in 2009 to promote Brazil as tourism destination all over the South America.
"Argentina remains a priority market. It is the main sender of tourists, a role that should be strengthened by the crisis that affected the American and European markets", explained the Minister of Tourism, Luis Barreto.
Of the 5 million tourists coming to the country last year, 2 million were from South America. According to the Minister, there are indications that the number of Argentineans visiting Brazil in 2008 reached 950 thousand, standing for an increase in comparison to the figures for 2007, when 920.2 thousand Argentineans came to Brazil.
Brazil is the preferred destination of one fourth of the Argentineans traveling abroad. According to Barretto, keeping the number of visitors in such a disturbed year as 2008 "can be considered as a victory." Still according to him, the crisis hinders any forecast on what is to come with the movement of tourists in 2009; however, the number of visitors is expected to remain the same.
According to data from the Brazilian Central Bank, tourism was one of the sectors responsible for the highest inflow of foreign currency to the country in 2008, US$ 5.8 billion worthy, ranking 5th in the Brazilian exports agenda, following the iron ore, soybean, oil and chicken.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
