Brazil and Rio's brand

[kirk bowman]

Greetings, I am new here and am curious about Brazil's tourism image and in particular why there seems to be a negative relationship between efforts by Brazil (new ministry of tourism in 2003, lots of money spent) and attracting international tourists.

Data:  Global growth of international tourism arrivals grew 35% from 2000-2008, a boom of historic proportions.  In South and Central America growth of 48%.  In Brazil, tourist arrivals 2000 - 2008 actually fell from 5.3 million to 5.05 million, and tourist arrivals in Rio (a city with more global tourism icons than any other) fell by 13 percent.

I have looked at national tourism plans from Embratur and the Ministry of Tourism over the past 15 years, and they always have ambitious goals that are NEVER met.  Why is Brazil such a failure in international tourism?  The 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index ranks Brazil number 1 in the hemisphere and number 3 in the world for natural and cultural resources for tourism, and yet with these tourism resources is a major disappointment.  Why?

Thanks for any comments.  Kirk Bowman, Georgia Institute of Technology

[FAMILY RECOMMENDS]

Hi, I´m new too, but I live in Brazil and may offer some insights on this matter, from a consumer´s point of view.
I personally prefer to travel abroad, than to spend my vacations in Brazil, if I have the opportunity. The Real being so strong is one of the reasons - nowadays we can take a luxury vacation abroad for the same money we would pay for an average trip within Brazil. That´s not only because of exchange rate. Companies operating in Brazil have to bear so many government taxes that it´s impossible to work with low markups. And some of them even use taxes as a lame excuse to overprice their services with no embarassment.
But cost is only part of the equation. The biggest issue here is lack of quality to most services - those that offer good quality are very very expensive. So this isn´t only a marketing issue - not being able to sell - but a real issue - not being able to deliver. Whenever we travel in Brazil we set apart a whole lot of patience, because we know we´ll need it. We know we´ll bump into lack of information, poor service, delays, misleading advertising, and so on.
So, this is all my personal opinion, but I think that as long as the government doesn´t set aside some money to qualify workers and even tourism entrepreneurs in Brazil, and give them some tax exemptions, the situation tends to stay as it is.
Hope this helps!