The news came out last week that analysts from Brazil’s Central Bank said that they expect Brazil’s economy to contract by 2.99 percent this year, with the outlook worsening slightly from the previous week’s 2.95 percent estimate. In other words, the nation’s worst economic recession in more than a half-century, which is known simply as a crise, continues. The Central Bank’s news coincided with the announcement by CVC, the nation’s largest travel company, that it would forego having a booth at all trade shows in Brazil this year. “We have much affection for these fairs, but we decided to invest in exclusive events CVC this year in regional meetings where travel agents will meet our customers to talk about sales, destination, seasons …” Valter Patriani, the company’s vice president, told Panrotas, the country’s top travel trade publication and website.
The company’s decision is a marked departure from the conventional way of doing business in Brazil where—even though it is a nation of more than 200 million people—the tourism community, especially the tour operators that comprise the membership of BRAZTOA (Brazilian Tour Operators Association, whose members sell about 90 percent of all travel in Brazil), is a tightly knit one and whose participation in trade shows is de rigueur.
But the collegiality factor might be less important than it was in 2015, when a number of the nation’s operators, including a leading tour operator, Nascimento Turismo, went bankrupt as they were unable to absorb the spread between the value of the dollar and the Brazilian real in their margins.
As Patriani seemed to suggest, the allocation of the company’s resources to sales efforts and events will engage CVC sales agents and travel agents year-round. The company will also pay closer attention to domestic product and be more focused on what international product it sells. He cited Orlando and Las Vegas as examples of product that it will sell throughout the year.
Meanwhile, it is possible that the worst might be over, insofar as the decline of the real vs. the U.S. dollar is concerned. It has stabilized at the same level since it bottomed out four months ago in mid-September. For a view of the real-dollar relationship during the past year, visit:
