Slowdown be damned! Business travellers still flocking to Brazil ...

So Brazil?s economy is slowing down. That means business travellers are not coming anymore, right? Wrong.

Research from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) shows that business travel spending in Brazil has nearly tripled over the past 12 years.

From 2000, when the people in suits spent a total of $11bn, business travel expenditure has grown on average by 8 per cent per year to over $30bn in 2012. The forecast for this year is even better, up 14.3 per cent to $34.5bn. This from GBTA:

Brazil?s business travel industry has been performing strongly compared to other developed markets. Brazil is currently ranked 8th in the world, up one place from 2011. With current growth rates, Brazil is forecast to continue its rise through the rankings as a major business travel market, overtaking Italy, France and the UK over the next two years.

The rise in business travel in spite of a weaker economic performance is probably explained by Brazil?s resilient rate of foreign direct investment, which hit a high of $65bn last year. Foreigners are still attracted by the country?s booming consumer market.

The harder thing now for Brazil will be to offer visitors a better experience when they get here, such as more affordable hotels and flights. The problems occur especially when Brazil hosts big international events.

But then again, look how far things have come. There was a time when Brazil, especially Rio de Janeiro, used to scare off most visitors because of the high rates of violence but community policing has improved the situation, at least in some areas. Compared to that, increasing the number of hotel rooms must be an easy task.

Related reading:
Controlling Brazil?s rip-off hoteliers, beyondbrics
Brazil hotels: growing pains, beyondbrics
Brazil tourism: forget the gringos, beyondbrics

Source: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/03/13/why-are-business-travellers-still-flocking-to-brazil/

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