This month Embratur will open seven Brazilian Tourism Offices across Europe, located in UK, Germany, Holland, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

The main objective of these offices will be to diversify the destinations and products that a typical tourist to Brazil might explore.

Europe is responsible for 28 per cent of the annual arrival of tourists into Brazil, some 1.6 million tourists.

The new offices will strengthen this relationship, by expanding destinations and products.

“The 2014 World Cup, with its 12 host cities and more than 100 associated destinations, will help us to diversify the list of destinations and products that the average tourist has in mind when they think of Brazil,” said the president of Embratur, Flávio Dino. 

“The work of the EBT managers will be to present further tourism opportunities, beyond those already explored in the ‘Sun and Beach’ segment of the industry.

“The June Festivals and Nature and Ecotourism destinations will be the main focus for the EBTs”, concluded Flávio Dino, president of Embratur.”

Tourism expert Lilás Nasicmento will be the UK manager.

With 16 years of expertise in the tourism market, Lilás was the Promotions and Events Coordinator for the Minas Gerais secretary of state for tourism.

Currently, 155,000 tourists visit Brazil from the UK – a figure that has increased by four per cent this year – principally from England.

The country has already qualified for the World Cup and 22,000 fans are expected to visit Brazil to watch their team play.

The UK is one of 18 priority markets, currently occupying 11th place in the ranking of major tourism sources for Brazil.