Brazil Intent on Becoming a Major Competitor on World Tourism
Written by Diego Freire
Friday, 22 July 2005
A plan to increase the competitiveness of Brazilian tourism on the world market was launched yesterday, July 21, by Brazil's Ministry of Tourism, which signed a contract with the Center of Management and Strategic Studies (CGEE).
The CGEE is an organ linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology dedicated to the formulation of strategies of touristic competition on the international market.
The partnership gives rise to the Brazilian Tourism Competitiveness and Commercial Strategy Plan, which is meant to ascertain the degree of competitiveness of the sector and how to adjust it to international standards of competition. The plan provides for three specific studies to map the sector, which comprises 52 sectors of the economy.
According to the Minister of Tourism, Walfrido Mares Guia, this analysis of Brazilian tourism should lead to an increase in job creation.
"The study will place tourism as a part of the strategic development of Brazil, paving the way to development and thus generating jobs."
With this study, the Minister went on to say, "we will find the best way to aggregate value, to be more competitive in attracting foreign tourists and to encourage Brazilians to travel more."
This supposed "Brazilian Tourism Competitiveness and Commercial Strategy Plan" has to be a nasty joke.. I have been spending up to 3 months per year in Brazil and I cannot legally drive a vehicle in Brasil for more than 60 days according to the Brasil Embassy in Ottawa. Brasil does not recognize Canadian drivers licence or the International Drivers convention of 1968. Unlike Canada an visitor cannot qualify for a Brazilian driving licence in spite of having a residence and owning a vehicle in Brasil.
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Another point.... written by Guest,
July 25, 2005
You can't be really interested in tourism when you require a visa for entry to Brazil. What are you, North Korea? And do you still have the absurd, retaliatory fingerprint-and-photo requirement for U.S. visitors? I know it was done as a response to the U.S. policy, but don't be as stupid as U.S. governemnt officials. U.S. tourists who want to travel to Brazil didn't make that rule, there was no vote taken.
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Violence not good for tourism... written by Guest,
July 25, 2005
With Rio de Janeiro at the top as a tourist destination in Brazil and also one of the most dangerous and violent cities, what tourist wants to get drugged, robbed, kidnapped, or even killed while on vacation? The government has to fix the problem of poverty and corruption of the police before spending even one REAL on tourism. Does sitting on the sidewalk of Copacabana beach while hoards of half-naked poor kids beg for money, constantly ask if you beer can is empty, or cunningly try to seduce you, only to drug you for 24-hours....does this sound like the picture postcard vacation of your dreams? And referring to the previous point...why would anyone want to pay $100 just to get a visa for this? Come on Brazil, get with the program. If you want to compete for tourist money, you have to compare yourself to the other more popoluar tourist destinations, see the difference, and try to be better. Being lazy and complacent about crime, corruption, and sanitation will only keep Brazil behind the rest of the world.
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Re: Another Point . . . written by Guest,
July 25, 2005
What about Brasilian travelers to the States? I agree with the "retaliatory" policy. Quit your whining ... If you want to go to Brasil badly enough, you'll cough up the extra bucks for a visa.
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... written by Guest,
July 25, 2005
I'm not whining...I'm being realistic. I lived in Brazil for 3 years. Retaliatory? Please. They stopped fingerprinting and taking digital photos a long time ago because they are so inefficient at immigration to do even this.What hypocracy!
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area.
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On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil.
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On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking.
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Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
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A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
I have been spending up to 3 months per year in Brazil and I cannot legally drive a vehicle in Brasil for more than 60 days according to the Brasil Embassy in Ottawa. Brasil does not recognize Canadian drivers licence or the International Drivers convention of 1968. Unlike Canada an visitor cannot qualify for a Brazilian driving licence in spite of having a residence and owning a vehicle in Brasil.