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Brazil Packed with Travel Riches, So Why So Few Tourists?

by Associated Press

   SAO PAULO --

   Brazil is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. It has miles of
   sandy, deserted beaches, and stunning flat-topped mountains. It
   invented samba and a devilish little drink called the caipirinha. It
   has massive reserves for native peoples and charming colonial towns
   built by the Portuguese.

   Despite the seeming abundance of riches for travelers, it has a tourism
   problem. Because while you may have heard about the Amazon or the
   stunning beaches of Rio de Janeiro, you have probably also heard that
   Brazil has high crime, was swept by a Zika outbreak and that its
   politicians have concocted the largest graft scheme in Latin American
   history.

   Most likely you've never visited Brazil. Only 6.6 million foreigners
   did last year, according to the Ministry of Tourism. That's about half
   the number that go to the tiny city-state of Singapore, and this in a
   continent-sized country that the World Economic Forum ranks No. 1 in
   natural resources and No. 8 in cultural resources. Oh, and that hosted
   the 2016 Summer Olympics.

   "The highest gap between potential in tourism in the world and what's
   been realized so far is Brazil," said Vinicius Lummertz, the president
   of Embratur, Brazil's tourism board. "We have [everything] from Xingu
   [an indigenous reserve] and Indians to Oktoberfest in Santa Catarina."

   High hopes

   In the face of a deep and protracted recession, the government is now
   hoping to change all that with several measures that aim to nearly
   double the number of foreign visitors in the next five years. But
   hoteliers, travel bloggers and others who work in tourism say there are
   many obstacles.

   The government plan includes a law to allow 100 percent foreign
   ownership of airlines, with the aim of increasing flight routes and
   driving down the cost of travel. Another plank will allow Americans,
   Canadians, Japanese and Australians -- all of whom need visas to visit
   Brazil -- to apply for visas online, instead of at a consulate.

   Cheaper flights and a smoother visa process will address some tourist
   complaints about Brazil, but Alison McGowan says the plan ignores the
   most glaring problem: Nobody knows how great Brazil is in the first
   place.

   "People don't even get as far as [applying for a visa]," said McGowan,
   the CEO of hiddenpousadasbrazil.com, a guide to inns, boutique hotels
   and B&B's in Brazil. "They haven't got people wanting to go to Brazil
   yet."

   McGowan and other tourism professionals say the government lacks a
   coherent campaign to promote Brazil abroad -- the real country, not
   just the cliches of Carnival and soccer great Pele.

   Part of the government's plan is to beef up Embratur. Officials there
   said they hoped that would lead to a doubling of investment in
   promotion. Last year, Embratur had a $16 million budget -- which the
   agency said was much less than what other South American countries
   spend.

   McGowan and others said Brazil is particularly bad at reaching modern
   global travelers who research trips and make reservations online.
   McGowan called the country's main tourism portal for foreigners,
   visitbrasil.com, "a disgrace."

   Taxes, crime, pollution

   Lummertz, the president of Embratur, says the government's plan will
   help promote Brazil abroad. But he says that the nation's tourist blues
   go beyond that. Latin America's largest nation is still struggling to
   overcome decades of isolation and remains the most closed of the
   so-called BRICS economies, he says.

   That has repercussions for tourism: High import taxes and other
   hangovers from isolation make the country expensive for travelers and
   reduce the quality of goods and services. Few Brazilians speak English,
   partly because they are unlikely to come across global travelers here.

   It's impossible, of course, to gloss over Brazil's real problems. It
   has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Rio's bay is
   polluted. And Zika is a risk. But the government and Embratur need a
   counter-narrative for tourists.

   "What is the world capital of pickpockets? It's Barcelona," said
   Ricardo Freire, who founded the Brazilian travel blog
   viajenaviagem.com. "But [the residents] don't tell you not to come
   there."

   The drawbacks of Brazil also need to be put in context. Tourists are
   not likely to be visiting tough urban neighborhoods where most crime
   happens, notes Emmanuel Rengade, the owner of the luxury, ecological
   hotels Pousada Picinguaba and Fazenda Catucaba. In the countryside,
   Rengade says he doesn't even lock his door.

   As for Zika, a mosquito-borne disease that has been linked to a rare
   birth defect, cases this year have fallen dramatically, and the
   government declared the emergency over this month. Rio's bay might be
   polluted, but the country has more unspoiled nature to visit than any
   one person could hope to see in a lifetime.

   And contrary to Brazil's messy image, Ben Feetham says: "Everything
   seems to work." Feetham, who is a reviewer for i-escape.com, a site
   that curates a selection of boutique hotels and inns, honeymooned in
   Brazil in April and said he had none of the usual stress about airport
   transfers or bus connections.

   All of the fuss over reputation and promotion ignores the No. 1 thing
   tourists like best about Brazil in surveys: the people, known for being
   easygoing and welcoming.

   "Anybody who goes to Brazil comes back loving it," said Pauline
   Frommer, the co-publisher of the Frommer's guidebooks and frommers.com.
   "The key is getting people there."