- Few countries
are able to offer as great a variety of tourist options as Brazil.
With a land mass the size of a continent - more than 8 million km2
- in terms of area, the nation is fifth in the world, exceeded only
by Russia, Canada, the USA and China, occupying almost half of South
America. The distances from north to south and from east to west -
around 4,300 km in each direction - are greater than from New York
to Los Angeles and from Moscow to Lisbon. It embraces contrasting
ecosystems such as the Amazon
Forest and the Atlantic Forest with their incredibly luxuriant
woodlands, the Cerrado (scrublands) and the Caatinga (arid lands)
with their twisted trees and landscape that changes radically according
to the seasons, the Pantanal
(marshland) with its flood plains teeming with an amazingly rich chain
of animal reproduction.
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- Intersected
to the north by the Equator and to the south-east by the Tropic of
Capricorn, Brazil covers an area equivalent to 16 Frances, 23 Germanys
or 28 Italys. Across this land-mass, almost entirely located in a
low altitude inter-tropical zone, average temperatures are mainly
above 20 degrees centigrade. For the tourist, this means the all year
round opportunity to enjoy one of the hundreds of beaches that are
scattered along the 7,400 metres of highly-favoured coastline, with
wind systems that are ideal for sailing and activities to suit all
tastes: white sandy beaches, beaches with waves that are ideal for
surfers, popular city beaches or semi-wild beaches where few have
ever stepped. There are no private beaches in Brazil.
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- Divided into
five geographical regions - North, North-East, Centre-West, South
and South-East - the country offers widely differing tourist options
in each of them. Although they all have one feature in common in the
form of Brazil's natural beauty, each one has its own special feature
- something that speaks out - to make discovering Brazil an adventure
that runs from rivers, valleys and mountains of rare beauty to a colonial
past and history that began in the 16th century.
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- A visit to Brazil's
North region, for example, involves getting to know Amazonia, its
rivers and forest, The region formed by the states of Acre, Amapแ,
Amazonas, Parแ,
Roraima, Rond๔nia and Tocantins offers activities including excursions
and fishing whilst staying right in the middle of the forest, as well
as visiting cities that flourished in the early 20th century during
the rubber production economy - cities such as Manaus
in Amazonas. It
also offers the opportunity to see a region considered by UNESCO as
being Heritage of Mankind: the Serra da Capivara in Parแ, with rock
paintings that have survived for thousands of years.
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- It is in the
North-East, formed by the states of Maranhใo,
Piauํ, Cearแ,
Rio Grande
do Norte, Paraํba,
Pernambuco, Alagoas,
Sergipe and Bahia
where the beaches are the most outstanding features and where the
sun shines all year round and the sea - including the Fernando de
Noronha Archipelago - where diving is a popular activity. The North-East
is the location of some of Brazil's oldest cities, such as Salvador
in Bahia, founded by the Portuguese colonizers in 1549 and the first
seat of Brazilian government; Olinda in Pernambuco, where the government
of the Dutchman, Maurice of Nassau left lasting cultural traces; Fortaleza
in Cearแ where the rafts that slice through the sea are one of the
city's landmarks; and Sใo Luํs in Maranhใo which has a strong Portuguese
influence, chiefly in architecture, with tiles prominently adorning
many of the registered buildings.
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- In the Centre-West,
formed by the states of Goiแs,
Mato Grosso and Mato
Grosso do Sul is Brasํlia
the federal
district and capital of Brazil. Built according to a scheme designed
by the town-planner, Lucio Costa and the architect Oscar Niemeyer,
Brasํlia was inaugurated in 1961 and from the urbanistic point of
view, is one of the most important planned cities in the world. A
visit to the Centre-West is also a visit to a region of great contrast:
the old where the bandeirantes or pioneers came rushing during the
17th century, in search of fertile land and gold; and the new where
the great economic and demographic surge arrived only with the establishing
of the new capital during the second half of the 20th century. It
is in the Centre-West where, side by side with a landscape formed
by hundreds of caves around cities such as Bonito in Mato Grosso do
Sul, where flora and fauna flourish in the floods and receding waters
of the Pantanal
(marshland) and the rivers that rise in Chapada do Guimarใes in the
Mato Grosso, originate or feed some of the largest hydrographic basins
in the entire continent.
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- Although it
contains some of the most beautiful valleys and mountains in Brazil,
many of which preserve luxuriant niches of the Atlantic Forest, the
main distinguishing feature of the South-East is the splendour of
the city of Rio de Janeiro
and the cultural and economic life of the other capital cities. Formed
by the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sใo
Paulo, Espํrito Santo and Minas
Gerais, the region is the financial centre of Brazil and its most
industrialized part, responsible for some of the world's largest urban
concentrations. The city of Sใo Paulo, for example, has more than
9 million inhabitants - 16 million if account is taken of the group
of cities that form the Metropolitan Region of Sใo Paulo which, as
in the case of Rio de Janeiro, offer enormous opportunities for the
tourist in terms of hotel infrastructure, business, leisure and culture.
Also in the South-East are the mining cities, such as Ouro Preto and
Congonhas do Campo in the state of Minas Gerais, with the typical
urban layout of Brazil's colonial past. The two cities contain works
by Aleijadinho, the country's most important sculptor of the baroque
period, and registered by UNESCO as Heritage of Mankind.
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- Formed by the
states of Paranแ,
Santa Catarina
and Rio Grande
do Sul, the South offers, in addition to some of Brazil's most
beautiful beaches, a mountainous landscape which attracted many European
immigrants who came and settled in the country in the mid 19th century
and the early decades of the 20th century. Showing marked signs of
German and Italian influence, the region retains the customs of the
native lands of those who adopted it and offers in its architecture,
cooking and festivals, some of the cultural ties linking it to the
cities of origin of its inhabitants. Also in the South is one of the
most spectacular waterfalls in the world: the Igua็u Falls considered
by UNESCO, on account of their natural beauty, as being Heritage of
Mankind.
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- Discovered in
1500, one of the most striking features of Brazil, where the official
language is Brazilian Portuguese, is its racial and cultural mix:
the Portuguese as first colonizers mingled with the Indians who had
lived there for thousands of years, and to these were added the African
Negroes who had come there during the period of slavery which was
abolished in 1888. Joining all these came immigrants from more than
50 countries to start families in the new motherland. That interbreeding
and the variety of features it left in each region is certainly one
reason for the friendliness and kindness of the Brazilian people who
extend a warm welcome to anyone visiting Brazil. In the past, these
people always welcomed immigrants and nowadays it is the tourist who
can easily feel at home in this country.
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- This welcome,
combined with the architecture of the period during which it was built
- Colonial Brazil (1500-1822), Imperial Brazil (1822-1889) and Republican
Brazil (1889 onwards) - comprises the ingredients that make this one
of the most attractive countries for tourism. To this may be added
the vocation of tourism which is closely linked to nature - from which
came the name Terra Papagalis, land of the parrots, by which the country
was known on ancient navigation charts, and Brazil itself, being the
name of a tree with red timber that was common throughout the coastal
area at the time of discovery.
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- With its vast
size and the richness of its natural resources, Brazil contains one
of the largest biodiversities in the world. Its diversified climate
and landscape present innumerable alternatives for special interest
tourism where travellers - and explorers - are not confined to the
passive contemplation of nature but make journeys that combine leisure,
sport, adventure, culture, study and work, covering the most diverse
interests and activities, such as incentive travel, hiking, cruising,
mountaineering, observing fauna and flora, photography, deep sea fishing
and anthropological research.
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- As one of the
world's most dynamic economies, Brazil is equipped with convention
centres providing large areas for exhibitions and a hotel infrastructure
to host international events, trade fairs and conferences, such as
the Rio-92 Conference, when Rio de Janeiro welcomed 122 heads of state
and 170 official delegates, accommodating more than 25,000 participants
for two weeks. This activity has been increasing as a result of Brazilian
participation in world organizations in areas such as the environment,
health and engineering, amongst others.
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- Brazil is served
by the major airlines and its hotel network comprises national companies
and some of the world's largest hotel chains. With the ever-increasing
flow of tourists, opportunities exist in various sectors both for
visitors and those wishing to invest in tourism. There are investment
opportunities in water sports and the building of marinas; in the
urban area with the construction of hotels, theme parks and others
as well as in the building and expansion of leisure resorts or super-hotels.
This sector has undergone considerable growth in Brazil.
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- Despite the
great potential for development in the sector, tourism in Brazil has
not played a representative part in relation to the world context.
In 1995, the entry of foreign tourists into Brazil accounted for only
0.6% of world travel. With the aim of stimulating the private sector
and investment in tourism, Embratur, a tourism company linked to the
Brazilian Government, set up the Tourist Business Stock Exchange with
two basic objectives: the redirecting of investment and the diversification
of the main destinations of tourism in Brazil, leading to the rational
exploitation of potential in each region.
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- The Brazilian
Government has also supported the development of tourism with financing
carried out by means of the Embratur-managed investment funds, either
alone or in conjunction with the North-East Development Agency (Sudene)
and the Amaz๔nia Development Agency (Sudam). Financial support is
given as an average of 40 to 65% of total investment and projects
must be approved by Embratur.
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- For long-term
financing, support is given via the credit lines set up by the National
Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) which finances on
a national basis, investment aimed at the improvement and creation
of new tourist attractions. There has been investment of US$ 400 million
by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) in Prodetur Nordeste
(North-East Region Tourism Development Scheme). Prodetur Sudeste,
covering the South-East region, is still being set up. In addition
are funds from the Constitutional Fund for Financing the North (FNO),
operated by the Bank of Amaz๔nia and directed towards ecological tourism
projects in the North region of Brazil.
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