The recently announced Top of Mind awards for companies and organizations of all economic sectors in Brazil recognized two easily recognizable brands familiar to the tour and travel industry of Brazil: the airline Gol and the tour operator/travel agency CVC.
Awarded by Folha de São Paulo, one of the country’s top newspapers—it has been in business for 98 years—the Top of Mind awards are highly sought after and highly prized by those who receive them. Overall. the Top of Mind awards cover 15 categories, with products and/or services that range from food to home appliances. Following is a condensed version of what Folha (most people in Brazil refer to the publication simply as Folha) had to say about the winners in the tourism category.
—Gol: The past year has been a turbulent year for Brazil’s airlines. There was the collapse of Avianca Brazil, which formally went out of business this past June 24th. And a competitive factor in the South American market air carrier segment came into play with the entry of Sky Airlines into some Brazilian destinations. According to Kayak, after the carrier’s arrival the average ticket price fell by 23 percent on the routes in which they operate.
Of Gol, Folha de São Paulo said “its solo lead flight took of inf 2018 when it left TAM (now Latam) behind on the tie-breaker, ‘awareness.’ In 2107 the two competitors share the victor. This time, Gol … received 29 percent of the spontaneous mentions and gave way to the top, as TAM received 20 percent—a decline of 5 points from the previous year.”
CVC: There aren’t many laudatory adjectives that haven’t been used to describe this veritable giant of Brazil’s tourism industry. It is the largest tourism retailer in the Americas, noted Folha de São Paulo, with 1,300 franchise units and 6,500 accredited multi-band agencies, operating in 430 cities and in all of Brazil’s 26 states and its Federal District which has the national capital, Brasilia. CVC opens a new store every three days. Almost 4 million customers travel via CVC.
Folha de São Paulo also took note of the way CVC has been diversifying its revenue sources. Its product line now includes travel insurance, theme and amusement park tickets, car rentals and extra lodging nights. Packages that are customized by the customer with single services account for some 70 percent of CVC sales.
