Jetsettersblog

The Brazilian Tourist Board, Embratur, partnered with Google Brazil to produce the first Google/YouTube brand channel, combining videos and Google maps to provide an interactive online Brazilian tourism experience.

Now accessible at www.youtube.com/visitbrasil  the site currently features more than 85 videos from Brazil.

This is the first convergence of its kind involving Google Maps into YouTube.

The site provides experiential reviews for travelers integrated with Google Maps.

Videos are subtitled in several languages.

More than six months of work with YouTube and Google’s teams went into building the site, and it will evolve with additions and modifications, including a new functionality allowing user-uploaded videos in early spring.

Alex Dias, general manager of Google Brazil, called it the “first mash-up of Google Maps and YouTube videos.”

Brazil is trying to leverage its high profile status as host of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games to promote itself as a global tourism destination before, during and after the events.

To help define tourism goals for 2010 and beyond, Embratur has created the Aquarela Plan 2020, setting forth objectives over the next 10 years.

Goals of the Aquarela plan include a 113 percent increase in international tourism from 2010 to 2020, bringing 11.1 million foreign visitors to Brazil; increase foreign spending by 304 percent within Brazil, totaling $17.6 billion; an increase totaling 500,000 tourists in Brazil in 2014 and a 15 percent year-over-year increase in 2016, the year of the Olympic Games in Rio; maintain sustained growth of at least 1 percentage point above the average growth rate in South America; and consolidate tourism leadership in South America, with 27 percent share of the tourists on the continent.

Americans are main targets of Brazil’s tourist promotion.

The United States is the second-largest source of tourists to Brazil behind Argentina.

In 2008, 625,506 American tourists visited Brazil. Sun and beach were named as the top reason for leisure travelers at 33.7 percent.

Culture was also an important driver at 27.3 percent and 94.6 percent of American visitors noted they intend to return.

The mission of the Brazilian Tourism Board, Embratur, is to promote Brazil in the international market as a destination for travelers.

The Brazilian Federal Government and Embratur have implemented the Aquarela Plan which calls for generating consumer awareness about Brazil and attracting more tourists.

The established target for the U.S. sector is increasing the annual numbers for tourists entering the country to 9 million, and attracting a total amount of $8 billion in revenue by 2010.

There are nine Embratur offices globally including Lisbon, Portugal; Paris, France; London, U.K.; Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Milan, Italy; and Tokyo, Japan.

There is also a Bureau for Tourism for Latin America, based at the Embratur office, in the city of Brasilia. For more information visit www.braziltour.com