Paige Brown

Having worked in numerous markets within Latin America and traveled throughout the continent over the past four years, I’m amazed at how progressive and fast moving the market has been. Both domestic and international travel markets are on the rise corresponding with a growing economy and upcoming global events.

As most of you know, Brazil is hosting not only the upcoming World Cup in 2014 but also the Summer Olympics in 2016. Hosting one large global event is a feat for any country, not to mention an emerging market like Brazil.

As we’ve seen in the past with both South Africa and Greece, the preparations for welcome millions of fans and tourists is a daunting task.  Talking with both locals and tourism industry folks alike, there is a nervous energy around whether Brazil can pull this off.

I see so far positive signs in the works, with Brazil’s tourism boards pulling together and create reporting mechanisms for hotels & pushing global campaigns. But the hotels need to be prepared, as can be seen from data after the London Olympics, their hotels were at over (2) 90% occupancy for the month of the Games. Brazil’s hotel market is very fragmented, with over 75% of the inventory being independent ‘Pousadas’ or small boutique hotels. Although we are seeing a trend of larger hotels coming to the bigger cities and World Cup cities, the Pousadas will still need to be ready to handle this spike in demand.

There is positive encouragement from the government and industry to push local lodgings and travel online and this is evident with Brazil’s 18% CAGR (3) for online travel bookings. Both local and International players are popular with Brazilian hotels and travelers alike. Top booking sites in the country include Decolar.com (Despegar), Booking.com, ViajaNet & others. (1) This is already prime territory for players like TripAdvisor and we’ve seen an expansion of their coverage in Brazil recently as well.

What you’re left with is an exploding market for both international and domestic travel with lots of promise and two large international events approaching. I was excited to attend the show in Sao Paulo to learn more about how this economy is pushing forward with tourism and how this can be applied to all of the other markets in Latin America and around the world.

Hyperlinks:

1) Top Brazil Websites Tnooz: http://www.tnooz.com/2013/03/01/data/booking-com-stretches-out-ahead-of-chasing-pack-top-brazil-travel-websites-january-2013/

2) Quotes on occupancy rates for London Hotels during Olympics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19907460

3) eMarketer Growth Rates of Brazil: http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/91-online-travel-market?start=1

• Paige Brown is the co-founder and CEO of Dashbell