World Cup 2014: Will tourism sector in Brazil be the real winner?

“Tudo bem” - all good - as the Brazilians say. The World Cup has finally begun and the host country brought the tournament to life with Neymar scoring twice in a thrilling 3-1 win over Croatia.

With a nationwide spasm of excitement but also tear gas, the country that sees itself as the artful soul of football but is conflicted about spending billions of dollars on hosting its showcase tournament, kicked off one of the most troubled World Cups ever on Thursday.

Despite all the protests and the controversy surrounding the tournament, tourists from all over the world – the Netherlands to Colombia are in Brazil to back their teams.

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Over the past decade, Brazil has welcomed roughly 5 million tourists a year. And this World Cup, according to reports, 600,000 tourists are expected at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and are expected to spend $2.6 billion.

This is huge in comparison to the 309,554 visitors for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and spend about $339 million (inflation adjusted) in South Africa.

With the huge number of tourists in this World Cup, Brazil has the opportunity to make the most out of this. In fact, research findings by Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism estimates the economic windfall for Brazil based on the influx of visitors to add roughly $3.03 billion to its economy.

The Ministry research notes that 1.9 million of the 3.7 million people expected to travel throughout Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup are those believed to actually attend World Cup matches and FIFA Fan Fests, reports Forbes. The other 1.8 million estimated visitors are believed to be travelling to Brazil to enjoy festivities linked to the World Cup.

Carolina Piber, senior director and general manager for Latin America, Hoteles.com (Expedia Group), tells the Buenos Aires Herald in an interview that World Cup will give Brazil the chance to set the wheel of the tourism industry in motion, but it has to make sure tourists return. “The World Cup lasts one month, and a month is a drop in the ocean for an economy,” she says.

However, she believes that there will not be full occupancy in hotels during World Cup. “Removing Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro from the equation, I don’t think there will be full occupancy. If there is saturation, it will be concentrated in the few days before and after matches,” she added.

During the first match, despite repeated promises from government officials that Brazil would be ready, there were problems at the stadium: The lighting failed in one corner, flickering off, on, off and finally back on again after the late-afternoon kickoff. Brazilian organisers blamed a fault with the power supply and said it would be looked at before the next match.

There were protests in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte. Police fired canisters of tear gas and stun grenades to push back more than 300 demonstrators who gathered along a Sao Paulo highway. Police also used tear gas against protesters in central Rio.

Brazil, clearly needs to do a lot more to get tourists and keep them coming every year.