Why You Should Be Paying More Attention to Brazil Timeshares
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
We share news 7 days a week here on The Timeshare Authority blog. That’s a lot of blog posts each year and the opportunity to cover a great variety of topics. So when one phrase hits our research files over and over again, we pay attention. Lately, the words “Brazil timeshares” have caught our eye, frequently popping up in the travel and tourism news.
What You Already Know about Brazil Tourism
In the vacation industry, it is a well-known fact that Brazilians love to travel to the US where the exchange rate is favorable for them and shopping can be enjoyed without the tariffs, tax rates, and transportation costs that add to the price of goods sold in Brazil. In fact, the US Commerce Department says more than 1.5 million Brazilians vacationed in the United States last year and in Florida, (the favorite Brazilian tourist destination) Brazilians outnumbered all other international tourists. Brazilian tourism is so important to Florida that in 2011, Disney hired 54 Portuguese-speaking “Super Greeters,” to assist Brazilian tourists in its parks, while SeaWorld Orlando offers classes for its employees to learn the basics of the Portuguese language.
Last week, the US government announced the names of the US private sector forum members who will serve the next term on the US-Brazil CEO Forum. The forum, which is scheduled to meet in October in Washington DC, was created to provide both President Obama and Brazilian President Rousseff with recommendations on opportunities to advance the US-Brazil bilateral relationship. Meeting twice annually, the forum addresses timely topics including streamlining the Visa process, air travel, education, and the recent US-Brazil Tax Information Exchange Agreement.
Brazil Timeshares: The Perfect Storm (In the Best of Ways)
However, the subject of Brazilian tourism has taken on a new dimension in recent months that goes beyond the billions of dollars Brazilian tourists pump into the US economy each year, spent at hotels, resorts, restaurants, theme parks, and malls. With an emerging middle class, the Brazilian economy is seeing both technology and tourism explode with growth. The upcoming 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, both scheduled for Brazil, are spurring a surge in Brazilian vacation accommodations as a hot investment item, including growth in Brazil timeshares.
At the same time, internet use is growing rapidly in Brazil with the country recently reaching over 100 million Internet users. Online travel booking in Brazil will surpass its $7.5 billion in online travel sales from last year. And if there was ever a right time for timeshare resort developers to look at building Brazilian timeshares or acquiring properties to rebrand as timeshares and fractionals, well, this looks like that perfect time.
