Therefore, the joint office of Embratur, Sebrae – Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service -, an entity that aims to promote entrepreneurship in Brazil, and Apex – Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency -, which, according to Marcelo Aleixo, expected to open in Lisbon in the first half of this year, will operate throughout Europe.
In this context, the Portuguese airline TAP is also a “most important and strategic partner”, he assumed, “as it is a ‘hub’ [plataforma giratória de voos] from all over Europe.”
In an interview with Lusa in the Portuguese capital, where he is to participate in the Lisbon Tourism Exchange (BTL), the president of Embratur highlighted that all regions of Brazil today receive a TAP flight, with another agreement having been signed at BTL with the Portuguese airline.
“It was an agreement, sustainability, data exchange, destination promotion and the possibility of expanding flights”, he stated.
“By the year 2025, it is difficult for TAP to have a new destination, although we wish that, but they have already announced that for the European summer of this year, therefore, in a few months, there will be an increase in flights to destinations that already exist”, stressed Marcelo Aleixo.
There will be “96 weekly TAP flights to Brazil next summer”, he summarized, adding that the number represents a historic record for TAP flights to his country.
“We have never had so many TAP flights, which is very good”, he welcomed, highlighting the importance of the agreement happening when Brazil is receiving a growing number of Portuguese and European tourists.
“We reached 182,000 Portuguese people visiting Brazil per year, in 2023. And, in 2024, the perspective is that we will reach 200,000, and could increase”, he said.
But, he stressed: “it’s not just the Portuguese that we always want to welcome very well, we have the whole of Europe (…). Several countries use TAP” and “come through Portugal to visit Brazil”.
Given this fact and a “very solid” relationship between Brazil and Portugal, not just because of the language, “an investment in Portugal is a mandatory investment” on the part of the Brazilian Government, he highlighted.
“It is always good to remember that we are coming out of a two-year pandemic and, in the case of Brazil, we are coming out of a pandemic within a previous government, which was, in our opinion, very disastrous in terms of relations international and tourism”, he highlighted.
Marcelo Aleixo recalled that Embratur has had partnerships with the Portuguese Government and with Turismo de Portugal, since April of last year, the date of the last Portuguese-Brazilian summit, with the Government of Lula da Silva as president of Brazil.
The relationship between Brazil and Portugal, which “intensified a lot” in the last year, and BTL are, in the opinion of the head of Brazilian tourism, “very strategic” for his country’s dialogue “with the entire European market”.
According to him, France is the European country “that sends the most tourists to Brazil”, followed by Portugal, Germany and Italy, countries that, from 2022 onwards, “have been increasing the number of visitors”, and in 2023 , the growth of European tourism to Brazil was 23%.
“This is a market that interests us,” he stated.
The communication strategy of “this Brazil with S, which is not Brazil with Z, from the previous government”, to attract more tourism aims to show that the great South American country “is not just sun and beaches”, it is culture, gastronomy and nature, because it is “this Brazilian diversity that makes Brazil more competitive (…) more attractive”, he added.
Marcelo Aleixo recalled that, with 2024 being the year of the Olympic Games in Europe, in France, there is a strategy, “a very strong Brazilian intention to be present in the European market”.
“Of course, we also work with Latin America and the United States, but the European market is very strategic for us this year and Portugal is the main route to this European market”, he concluded.
*** Ana Tomás Ribeiro (text), Jorge Godinho (video), José Goulão (photos), from the Lusa agency ***
ATR // MLL
Tags: Vision Investment Portugal mandatory Brazilian tourism reach Europe
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