• Submitted by: lena campos
• Travel and Tourism
• 05 / 11 / 2013

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“Our philosophy is very simple: come to visit Brazil during the course of the upcoming events we’re preparing. We’ll all be open to praise our main customers: the tourists,” said Brazil’s Tourism minister Gastão Vieira during his keynote speech at the grand opening of the International Tourism Fair (FITCuba 2013), currently underway at the Plaza America Convention Center in Varadero, and in which Brazil is the guest country.

Brazil is making preps for the Soccer World Cup 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games, though the country is also working on the First Meeting of Catholic Youths –due out in coming months- and the World Expo in 2020 in the city of Sao Paolo.

According to Mr. Vieira, tourism is a major powerhouse for the Brazilian economy and an antidote to the financial crisis that’s been sweeping the world since 2008 and shows no signs of winding down anytime soon. Today, travel and tourism ship in 3.7 percent of Brazil’s GDP, with a solid 6 percent growth in 2012.

The South American nation recently laid out the National Tourism Development Plan that defines policies and challenges for the sector over the next couple of years. “Our objective is to help Brazil become the world’s third-largest economy by 2022. I know this is a bold move, but it’s what we can expect from a country that will get a lot of media hype in coming months with so many events in the offing,” Mr. Vieira said.

Brazil wants to make the most of those events, especially in the field of tourism, in an effort to work out a few problems that stand in the way of a faster economic development. With that view in mind, the South American nation is ponying up lump sums of money into the streamlining of airports, the improvement of urban infrastructures and the training of some 240,000 people to work in the travel industry, minister Vieira explained.

As to tourism ties between the two nations, Mr. Vieira said there’s an impending need to step up travel between Cuba and Brazil. On a yearly basis, only 15,000 Brazilian sunbathers visit Cuba, while a meager 4,000 Cuban travel to Brazil. A major move aimed at improving that inflow of tourists to and fro will be the inauguration of a weekly nonstop flight –operated by Cubana de Aviacion- between Havana and Sao Paolo on June 10. This flight will scrap the mandatory stayover in Panama and Colombia.

“We have to see tourism as a crucial link to sustainable tourism. This is the sector that creates more jobs and generates more income. Tourism helps us to preserve our cities and encourages the conservation of our natural heritage, which is no doubt one of the main assets both Cuba and Brazil have to offer,” Mr. Vieira concluded.

Source: Eturbonews.com