Brazil reached a milestone as their Ministry of Tourism recorded that over 6 million tourist travelled to the South American country in 2014 and this was mainly due to the 2014 World Cup which was held in different regions around Brazil but that eventually reached it’s end in Rio de Janeiro which is where the last match was played with Germany facing off with Argentina and claiming a 1-0 triumph over the team of Lionel Messi.
This was the first time in the history of Brazil that they welcomed so many visitors to their native ground and the vast majority of them arrived from Argentina as it had a total of 1,743,930 tourists arriving as they watched Lionel Messi and his teammates playing in the finals.
The 2nd country with most visitors was United States as they had a total of 656,801 and Chile came in 3rd with over 300,000. A big amount of those tourists stayed in camper vans while others threw themselves to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and partied after watching their respective national teams facing off in the playing grounds.
Having so many tourists arriving to Brazil is great news for the country and the Minister of Tourism, Henrique Alves is hoping that this growth can continue going on for the next years as he said:
“The numbers show that the World Cup was big business for tourism. Now the challenge is for the sector to keep growing. Mega events are excellent catalysts for increasing tourism. But in order to maintain consistent growth, we need to address structural issues and approach tourism with professionalism.”
If the amount of tourists that come to Brazil continue choosing the South American country as their destination, this will create a positive impact in the economy of the nation which was seriously damaged by all the costs and money that was spent in hosting such a big event.