Tourism was Brazil’s third largest source of foreign currency during the first seven months of this year. In 2004, tourism ended up in sixth place. This information was announced Tuesday, October 18, by the Brazilian Minister of Tourism, Walfrido dos Mares Guia, at a luncheon with entrepreneurs from Rio de Janeiro.
According to Mares Guia, between January and July of this year only iron ore and soybean exports earned more foreign revenues than the tourism sector, which brought in US$ 2.1 billion altogether. The goal for 2005 is to attain earnings of US$ 5.6 billion.
Mares Guia affirmed that precise data on the tourism industry are still lacking, but it accounts for roughly 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which represents the total wealth generated by the economy.
"We shall have this figure, beginning next year, but the estimate is that it will be around 5% of the GDP, half the world average," he said.
ABr