In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Marcelo Freixo, President of Embratur.
What expectations do you have about ITB Berlin?
It is one of the most important fairs in the world. There is a very strong presence here from around the world and Embratur attends with 52 exhibitors, Brazil is very present. We are very interested in the German market because it is one of the countries that sends the most tourists in Europe and the third in the world, and these tourists come to Brazil, but they can arrive in much larger numbers. We had an increase from 2022 to 2023, of 31% of the German public to Brazil. But still, we know that it can be much more significant, because there is a large part of the German population that travels a lot in search of sun and beach, which is what we have.
Brazil can offer a deserted beach, or a beach like in Rio de Janeiro. And beyond that, it offers culture, gastronomy, nature and has a lot of diversity. So this approach with agencies, operators and the German market is very important for us.
How do they relate to the rest of the markets in Europe?
France is ranked first, Portugal is second and Germany is third. But Germany is generally the country in Europe that sends the most tourists abroad. So we think there is a lot of growth potential here, especially given what Brazil offers.
What's new in terms of tourism investments?
We have been working a lot with gastronomy as an attraction, because it has a very strong relationship with culture. So when you talk about gastronomy in Bahia, you are talking about an African culture that is very present there. When we talk about Minas Gerais cuisine, it is a gastronomy that has to do with everything that happened in the 18th century with mining, slavery, union and the formation of the first Brazilian cities. When talking about southern cuisine, it implies colonization. While Amazonian gastronomy has to do with indigenous populations and forest culture.
We are promoting Brazilian diversity a lot. And afrotourism is one of the themes of this diversity in which we have made a great investment. We have worked with Roadshows and Visit Brasil galleries, and we are in all international fairs. There is an investment to promote Brazil at a very favorable time.
In 2023, the country returned to the level of international tourism of 2019 and had the highest income of all time, surpassing international tourism in the 2014 World Cup period. Brazil went through a World Cup, an Olympics, World Cup Day. Youth, and great world events.
This indicates that you currently have a very large and diverse hotel capacity in all regions… right?
Exactly. We even welcome luxury tourism very well. We have very different capacities, there are very sophisticated and selective hotels to something more massive and more popular that is possible to afford by any type of pocket. Brazil's capacity is vast.
Are you working on connectivity?
Yes, that is our biggest challenge. We have three companies that operate in Brazil: Azul, Latam and Gol, but we have many international flights. TAP, for example, is a company that flies to 11 different states in Brazil and all Brazilian regions. Lufthansa flies to Rio and São Paulo. And we have already recovered from the pre-pandemic period, so now all our efforts are to expand the number of companies that fly to Brazil, we want airlines to have more flights.
Regarding international visitors, do you currently have a projection for 2024?
The projection for this year is 6.8 million international tourists.