Agência de Notícias Brasil Árabe

São Paulo – Never have so many Brazilians packed their bags on their way to the Arab countries. And that does not refer just to participation in business fairs in the countries, but also leisure tourism. Among the operators, the expansion of packages may reach 50% over the last three years. This is the case with Costa Cruzeiros. At Nascimento Turismo it was 35% in 2009. The forecasted growth in 2010 for operator CVC is 35%, the largest in the sector in Brazil. This expansion is partly due to the excitement of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is the main starting point. That is not to mention classic tours, like Egypt, and other bets that should gain greater space in the holiday season, like Jordan and Tunisia.

What do these destinations have? "In Dubai, it is all very new, with special focus on the architecture. Routes like Egypt or Jordan are interesting and attractive mainly due to the history,” explained the president at the Brazilian Travel Agency Association (Abav) in São Paulo, Edmar Bull.

According to him, Dubai is growing among tourists for different reasons: the offer of daily Emirates flights from São Paulo and the greater promotion of the site, as well as having served as the backdrop for some scenes of Globo TV soap opera "Caminho das Índias" (Route to the Indies), broadcast last year. That is not to mention the Brazilian celebrities who constantly praise the beauty of the desert, including presenters Hebe Camargo and Amaury Jr., among other famous personalities.

Due to such interest, companies have been generating good results. In the case of Costa Cruzeiros, the greater number of Brazilians interested in trips in ships in Dubai has been 50% from 2007 to date. Currently, the operator has two vessels - Costa Deliziosa and Costa Luminosa - in the region in high season, from December to May. Each one of them has a capacity for 2,826 passengers, leaving weekly. “We organise it all so that travellers may spend one or two nights with the vessel docked in Dubai, allowing them to learn more about the place,” said Cláudia Del Valle, Sales and Marketing manager at Costa Brasil Group.

At CVC, which promoted trips worldwide by over two million passengers in 2009, the objective is to expand sales of packages to the Arab nations by 35% this year. There, the most sought destinations within this group are Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. So much so that the company is going to release, this year, an incentive campaign in partnership with the government of Egypt. "This is an initiative that involves the tourism organisation of that country and companies that offer receptive tourism there,” explained Marcos Scardua, the Product supervisor at CVC for Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

In the sector, CVC plans to invest mainly in Tunisia. "It is our biggest bet in the region,” said Scardua, he himself having visited and enjoyed Tunis and El Djem, two of the sites he most enjoyed visiting while in that country. "The El Djem Coliseum is beautiful, in very good condition,” he said.

Another company prepared to take more and more Brazilians to the region is Nascimento Turismo. There, the expansion was 35% in sales of packages to Egypt and 20% to Morocco, in 2009, as against 2008. In the ranking of most attractive destinations for the company are the Emirates, Egypt and Morocco, in that order.

Do you want more? In the case of operator Canadá Turismo, the demand was such that in 2008 the company even created Só Dubai, a division within the organisation to focus exclusively on this sector. The nucleus also includes packages to Jordan and Egypt. "We worked hard on training our employees so that they can offer personalized tours,” explained Eduardo Camargo, the director at Canadá Turismo. An example of this service was the recent organisation of a trip to Dubai by 16 women aged from 65 to 80. "They loved it. It is a route that attracts visitors of different profiles,” he said. On seeing the excitement while packing up to leave, it is hard not to agree with him.

*Translated by Mark Ament