In the first four months of 2005, the Iguaçu Falls in Brazil received an alltime record number of visitors for this time of year. Between January 1st and April 30, 385,965 tourists entered the Foz do Iguaçu National Park from the Brazilian side.
This figure represents a 12.7% (49,946) increase compared with the same period last year and 1.5% more than in 1987, the peak year for visits since statistics began to be kept in 1980.
255,265 (66.2%) of the visitors to the Falls during the first four months of 2005 were foreigners. The largest contingent (63,521) came from Argentina, followed by the United States (15,105).
These figures were announced by the advisory office of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).
Visits to the Park have been on the upswing over the past three years. Last year more than 980 thousand people entered the Park from the Brazilian side, 21.9% more than in 2003 (765 thousand). Around 610 thousand people visited the Park in 2002.
According to the Ibama, the expectation is for this year’s total to break the record set in 1987, when 1,084,205 people visited the Iguaçu Falls.
Abr