Data released by the Central Bank indicates that between January and August of this year, international tourists visiting Brazil spent 8.8 per cent more than during the same period last year. In total spending reached £3,029 billion in 2014 compared to £2,785 billion in 2013.

Political demonstrations in the build up to the FIFA 2014 World Cup cast a long shadow over the event, threatening its success. But when the football started the headlines were nothing but positive, with Brazilian tourism one of the big winners. Here Breaking Travel News sits down with Embratur president Vicente Neto to discuss how the country turned around the event and what the future holds as Brazil builds toward the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

After an exciting final, the winners of the World Cup are ready to fly home to Germany –with Lufthansa. The flight, with a special flight number LH2014, will be operated with the brand new Boeing 747-8, the “Queen of the Skies”, which is the longest aircraft in civil aviation history.

Video: Breaking Travel News visits the corporate headquarters of Emirates, the Dubai based airline, for this edition of Travel Talk to look at the way they use the sponsorship of sport and in particular football to market their global brand. Phil Blizzard talks to Boutros Boutros about their association with football, the FIFA World Cup and how that has evolved. He also talks about the way the Emirates brand has moved from being purely an airline brand and into a broader one focused around ‘lifestyle’.

Drama, joy and emotion – three essential ingredients of any FIFA World Cup – were in plentiful supply yesterday. It was a day on which heroes joined forces to lead their teams to glory, while others completed unlikely comebacks and one player in particular was unable to withstand the emotion of it all, leading to a rumour or two on social networking sites. All in all, it was another excellent day for South America, with Colombia striding into the second round for the first time in 24 years, while Uruguay bounced back to revive their hopes of pulling off another Maracanazo and leave England’s chances of making further progress hanging by a thread.

Video: Brazilian football legend Pelé tours Dubai and visits the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa. Acknowledged in 1999 as the ‘Greatest Footballer of the Century’ he is the only champion to have lifted the FIFA World Cup trophy three times. Pele is a Global Ambassador for Emirates the global airline headquartered in Dubai.