Introduction

Brazil

Brazil is known around the world as a country with a 'well-defined image' (Boniface, 2016, 546), from the famous rainforest to its luscious beaches, and a rich culture with influences from Portugal and Africa. All these features attract tourists from around the globe who come to experience what the country has to offer. This year up to date the international arrivals in South America have increased by 6.6% (UNWTO, 2016b) showing a rise in popularity of the area as a tourist destination. More specifically Brazil itself has experienced around an increase of 1.2 million more tourists between the years 2010 and 2015 (UNWTO, 2016a).

Mobilities and the Experience Economy

Mobilities is a concept that explores the movement people and the social repercussions of these movements (Urry, 2007). As the ease of travelling around the world has increased many locations have taken the opportunity to gain from this mobility. Increasing tourism in locations such as Brazil lead to many social benefits for the country including economic growth and a globally known culture. The experience economy is described as the process of selling an experience to the consumers, this has developed from the selling of an actual product. Tourist destinations rely heavily on this experience economy as they use this process to target the tourists through events and the countries natural resources that both please the visitors.

Aims

The aims of this website are to:

• Provide key information on Brazil and its natural/cultural resources
• Explore tourism in Brazil
• Provide reasons on why it will make an ideal location for a new festival

Travel to, from and within brazil

International travel flows

The official report from the UNWTO (2016a) displays information on the international tourist arrivals in Brazil between the years 2010 and 2015. In 2010 Brazil had 5.2 million international visitors (see figure 1) and by 2014 this had increased by 1.2 million to 6.4 million (see figure 2). However, this dropped by around 1.9% during the year 2015. International tourism receipts for Brazil show that in 2015 the destination had an income of US$5.8 billion from tourism, this had also dropped from the year before by around US$1 billion. Overall in 2015 3.3% of all the international tourists visited Brazil. Popular destinations for these tourists, as listed on Lonely Planet (2016a), are Rio de Janeiro, The Amazon and São Paulo. It is expected that by 2020 this amount will increase to around 8.3 million arrivals with a good performance for the industry in 2016 due to the hosting of the Olympic Games (BMI Research, 2016). In 2015 the spending for leisure was considerably higher, at 89.6% of the total compared to those tourists who were there for business travel (see figure 3).

Domestic travel flows

“The growth in the economy has swelled the ranks of the Brazilian middle class, who now have the discretionary income for both domestic and international tourism” (Boniface et al., 2016, 653). With this being said, between the years 2005 and 2013 the number of domestic trips taken by Brazilians has doubled and is reaching figures of around 90 million and Brazilians are beginning to travel widely within their own country with a particular interest in the beaches (Boniface et al., 2016). Boniface (2012) also noted that the majority of domestic travel was done by road travel and not air travel as travelling via air within Brazil is expensive. As seen in Figure 3. the majority of the spending off tourists comes from domestic travellers at a total of 94% compared to 6% from foreign visitor spending showing just how important domestic tourists are to Brazil’s economy.

Transport

Air travel within Brazil is well developed with nine major airports enabling access to locations all over Brazil. Visitors to Brazil can purchase the ‘Visit South America’ air pass which promotes travel around South America and cities in Brazil (Lonely Planet, 2016b). The biggest Brazilian airports are in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo making them popular for the tourists to fly into.

For local travel is it recommended that taking the bus is one of the best ways to see the cities of Brazil (Lonely Planet, 2016c). Most of the busses are used by the local Brazilians in order to get to work and therefore busses are regular and affordable. Transport links were improved ahead of the Olympic Games in 2016 and now both Rio and São Paulo have excellent metro systems (Lonely Planet, 2016c).

Cultural resources, natural resources and events

Overall evaluation of brazil as a host of a new event

SWOT Analysis

Strengths: Brazil is already a popular destination among tourists and has many attractions including a rich culture and natural beauty. Tourism is increasing in Brazil and with the help of events such as The Olympic Games in summer 2016 this will also boost the tourist numbers.

Weaknesses: The hotel industry is undeveloped and those hotels that are up to standards are over-priced and off putting.

Opportunities: There are opportunities to build new infrastructure in areas that could be developed in to tourist locations. This is also a prime opportunity for new events to happen that would also attract tourists to these new areas.

Threats: One of the biggest threats in Brazil at the moment is the Zika Virus outbreak. Although the risk of getting the virus is very low this may put some tourists off visiting the destinations.

(BMI, 2016)

Evaluation

On the surface, Brazil has many things to offer tourists, this includes its warm climate with temperatures ranging between 23 and 27 degrees Celsius, perfect for the tourists wanting to spend time on Brazil's luscious beaches. Its other natural features include The Amazon rainforest, which is the largest in the world, also go a long way in attracting tourists from all around the world for experiences they are not going to get anywhere else.

These certain features provide the country with a great tourist interest allowing for a perfect location to host new events. Not only will previous visitors be interested in the events but with tourism for the location on the rise more people from around the globe will be interested in attending too. There is also high numbers of domestic tourism within Brazil and most of the current events happening are directed towards native Brazilians, new events are also likely to attract their interest and they are likely to attend.

Brazil due to its size also has an amazing travel network with around nine airports and smaller ones in rural areas ensuring the entire of the country is accessible. In the main cities bus networks and metro networks are also provided and well ran. This ability to travel all around the country means that any new events could be hosted almost anywhere in Brazil and it will be very easy for the visitors to attend ensuring high attendance numbers.

Two of the main events that already happen yearly in Brazil are the famous Carnival and The Reveillion, a New Year's festival. Both of these events promote Brazil's culture and have positive legacies. It is most important that any future events planned in Brazil follow this ideology and promote positivity towards multiculturalism and acceptance.

Overall, Brazil has room for improvement as a tourist destination and an event location and this is what makes it perfect for a new festival to be hosted there. The reason for this is there is still space for new ideas to be developed and for the country to be further developed. This includes building more infrastructure to promote the growth of the hotel industry making it more affordable for the tourists to attend the events.