Brazil launches new Football Route and promotes itself as a sports tourism destination

Embratur-Visit Brasil has launched the Football Route, a digital platform featuring four tourism itineraries inspired by the history, spaces, and experiences connected to the country’s most popular sport. The content is available on an official website and across the organization’s social media channels.

The Football Route was created to transform the global passion for the sport into a structured tourism experience. The digital guide offers suggested itineraries and activities that allow visitors to discover Brazil through its football culture—exploring historic stadiums, museums, club headquarters, traditional fan bars, and other spaces tied to the sport’s memory and lived experience.

The project begins in Rio de Janeiro, a city home to some of the country’s most iconic stadiums and clubs, with a deep-rooted football tradition. Embratur envisions the initiative as a pilot project, with potential expansion to other destinations across Brazil.

Digital platform
The platform centralizes content on stadiums, clubs, museums, bars, and other football-related experiences, organized through specialized research and structured with filters by interests, commemorative dates, locations, and booking links. The goal is to show visitors how deeply the sport is embedded in everyday life across Brazilian cities.

Developed by Embratur through EmbraturLAB—its innovation lab—the Football Route platform is multilingual and responsive, serving as a curated showcase of Rio’s football ecosystem. It brings together all relevant information in one place to guide international tourists interested in this theme.

The official website is available in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, allows users to choose from four immersive experiences to enjoy football as it is meant to be experienced. It also features a comprehensive football calendar in Rio de Janeiro, including the Campeonato Carioca, Brasileirão, Copa do Brasil, and Copa Libertadores, allowing travelers to check upcoming matches and plan their visit.

The route also serves as a preview of the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which Brazil will host for the first time from June 24 to July 25, 2027—making it the first South American country to host the tournament. This will be the tenth edition of the competition, featuring 32 national teams competing for the title.

The four experiences
Route 1 – Match Day: The full fan experience
Match Day is a cultural and gastronomic itinerary that takes visitors through the full experience of a Rio football fan—from iconic bars and restaurants around stadiums to the thrill of the match itself.

Available for the four biggest clubs in Rio—Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, and Vasco da Gama—each itinerary highlights traditional gathering spots where club passion blends with Rio’s authentic gastronomy and bohemian culture.

Route 2 – History and Glory: Club headquarters that tell the story of football
This itinerary explores the origins and cultural importance of the historic headquarters of Rio’s major clubs, revealing that these spaces are much more than just stadiums.

Fluminense’s headquarters in Laranjeiras is considered a sanctuary of Brazilian football, hosting the first match of the national team and the country’s first concrete stadium. São Januário, home of Vasco, represents a landmark of resistance and inclusion, built by fans in response to segregation in the sport. Gávea, Flamengo’s headquarters, houses the club museum and preserves the memory of legendary players and historic achievements.

Route 3 – Concrete Giants: The great stadiums of Rio football
This route highlights the two main stages of Rio football: the modern Nilton Santos Stadium and the iconic Maracanã Stadium.

Nilton Santos Stadium, home of Botafogo, stands out for its international-level infrastructure, symbolizing modernity and comfort. Maracanã is a global temple of football, a cultural landmark that has hosted legendary moments—from the 1950 World Cup final to Pelé’s 1,000th goal and multiple World Cup finals.

Together, these stadiums represent the grandeur of football in Rio—spaces of memory, passion, and major cultural events.

Route 4 – Rio Classics: The narrative of rivalries
In Rio football, each derby carries its own story—decades of rivalry, epic moments, and remarkable statistics. Six major matchups define the identity of Rio’s football scene, from the Clássico da Rivalidade to the iconic Fla-Flu, as well as the Clássico dos Milhões and the Clássico Vovô.

Promotion strategy
The Football Route is part of Embratur’s strategy to expand Brazil’s positioning as a sports and cultural tourism destination in the international market. The digital guide will be promoted through global campaigns and targeted outreach to the tourism sector, media, and travel and sports content creators.

The initiative also forms part of Embratur’s 60th anniversary celebrations and is included in the agency’s Innovation Month. By structuring football-related experiences as a tourism product, the initiative aims to offer international visitors a new way to discover Brazil—exploring its history, regions, and cultural expressions through one of the country’s most shared passions.

Source: Embratur.