Study shows Brasilia’s travel spend is driven by corporate and government related travel

9 April, 2018

Tourism and travel spend from international visitors represents a small portion of travel expenditures in Brazil's capital city Brasilia, reflected in higher volumes of government and business travelers.

Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro were included in a series of reports prepared by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) that covered 65 cities, six of which were in Latin America.

"Less than 4% of Brasilia's Travel & Tourism activity was generated by international demand, as Brazil's capital city relies on domestic spending," said WTTC.

Business travel is important for Brasilia, WTTC concluded, "including large volumes of government related travel".

Brasilia's tourism spend represented in 3.2% of the city's economy in 2016, accounting for USD2.1 billion, WTTC calculated.

Travel and Tourism represented a larger portion of Rio de Janeiro's GDP in 2016, roughly 4.9% or USD6.5 billion. However, less than 6% of the city's tourism spend is driven by the international markets, said WTTC.

Rio's hosting of 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics "had limited impact on overall Travel & Tourism GDP and employment in the city", WTTC concluded. There was a small increase in the volume of visits and overnight stays during 2014; however, this level has not been maintained, and improvements in international demand were also offset by lower domestic demand due Brazil's recession, the Council calculated.

The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to Brazil's GDP in 2016 was USD152.2 billion, or roughly 8.5% of total GDP, the WTTC calculated.