Dubai Tourism opens Brazil office
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Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) announced the opening of a representative office in Brazil. This new office is part of its strategy to attract visitors from the South American tourism market.
Hamad bin Mejren, DTCM’s executive director for business tourism, said: “The opening of our office demonstrates the importance we are placing in increasing relationships with the tourism industry of this market. The office will focus on promoting Dubai as a leisure and MICE destination to the whole Latin and South American market but specifically to Brazil and Argentina.”
Emirates Airline operates direct flights to both Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and close to 40,000 Brazilians visited Dubai in 2012, a 28% increase on 2011. In addition, last year 300,000 Brazilians transited through Dubai International Airport – a 61% increase. The Emirate is also growing in popularity with organizers of Brazilian Incentive Trips.
His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, director general of DTCM and CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre added: “Trade between Brazil and the UAE is increasing exponentially and with the connectivity Emirates provides, there is significant potential to grow this market. By opening this office we hope to double number of visitors from Brazil from 40,000 in 2012 to 80,000 in 2014.”
The latest World Travel Trends Report showed that Brazilians are increasingly spending money on foreign travel, a result of the country’s strong economy, a 6% year-on-year increase in incomes and a growing middle class which accounts for 52% of the Brazilian population, with the average family in this bracket earning approximately US$1,412 per month. The growth in this segment is a key contributor to an estimated year-on-year growth of the Brazilian outbound market of 4.5% up to 2020 (according to ‘Research and Markets’). In 2012 Brazilians spent over US$21bn abroad, a sum that increased 175% in the last five years.