Brazil’s big-spending tourists take New York by storm If there is a slowdown in Brazil, George Fertitta is not seeing it. As the head of NYC & Company, New York City’s official tourism board, Fertitta has witnessed the meteoric rise of Brazilian visitors to the Big Apple. Last year, Brazil became the second most important overseas market for the city after the UK: 826,000 Brazilians came to visit, compared with 112,000 in 2006. “We have never seen anything like it,” said Fertitta. “We have had big surges in visitors from Ireland but the surge from Brazil is unique in scale.” For all the talk about Brazil losing economic might, Brazilians continue to flock to NYC in ever greater numbers. And their numbers are helping to offset the decline in tourists from more obviously stricken countries such as Italy and Spain. They are also outspending the Europeans during their stay. With an average spent of $2,262 per trip, Brazil is right up there with Australia and the UK as the biggest total spending tourist groups in New York. “Brazilians have become in essence our most important visitors,” said Fertitta. “They have the potential to become our largest overseas market in three to four years’ time.” In many ways, the continued influx of free-spending Brazilian tourists into cities like New York and Miami underscores the particular two-speed nature of Brazil’s economy. While growth might be stalling – with GDP up less than 1 per cent last year – and inflation creeping up, unemployment remains at record low while wages continue to climb. “It’s almost like a rite of passage,” says Andrew Gajary, general manager of the InterContinental Hotel in Times Square, New York. “A trip to Nova Iorque seems to have become the ultimate status symbol for Brazil’s new middle class.” Gajary should know. His hotel has in recent years seen a sharp rise in Brazilian visitors – particularly in January and February, when it’s summer school holiday in Brazil. So noticeable has the increase been that Gajary has taken on extra Portuguese-speaking staff to make its new Brazilian clientele feel more at home. Some of the reasons behind the Brazilian tourist boom in NY are well known. A relatively strong real and easier access to credit have helped, as have the high taxes and rising inflation that make Brazil an expensive place buy consumer goods. Indeed, a common refrain among Brazilian visitors is that they save so much money buying in the US that the savings often cover their US airfare and hotel bills. But the success of New York in attracting Brazilian tourists also offers a lesson in how to successfully tap an emerging market. As Brazil’s economy grew and middle-class Brazilians abandoned traditional vacation spots like Argentina for Miami, NYC & Company began making frequent trips to Brazil to step up its marketing efforts. It partnered up with São Paulo Turismo, the city’s tourism board, and quickly persuaded American Airlines to create discount fares between the two cities. After noticing that Brazilian visitors were disproportionately taken with Broadway theatre, NYC & Company brought six musical productions to São Paulo to woo tour operators and travel agents. Fertitta thinks there is still plenty of room to grow. For starters, more direct flights between the Big Apple and second tier Brazilian cities should give NY’s tourism trade a further boost. Similarly, any move by the US to streamline the onerous process that Brazilians must currently go through to obtain a tourist visa is also expected to open the door for more visitors to the US (At the moment there are only four visa-processing consulates in Brazil – a country of 200m people covering an area as large as the US.) If Fertitta’s optimism bears out, then restaurant owners in New York would do well to start cutting back a bit on Coca-Cola and stock up on some Guaraná – the soft drink of choice in Brazil. ft
Posted on: Wed, 22 May 2013 09:21:59 +0000
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