The title of this blog post is not my own. It is rather a statement by the World Tourism Organization (Brasil precisa de novas estratégias para atrair turistas, diz OMT). One day, with plenty of time in my hands and the stimulus to do so, I am going to write a thorough analysis of everything that is wrong with the way Brazil sells itself abroad. Let me be clear, the “new strategies” do not involve circus acts (spending a fortune on a billboard when so many basic things are needed is not the way forward) or plagiarism (I’m still awaiting for a contact from the Brazilian goverment to explain the unauthorized use of blog content I was victim of).

Unless a radical change takes place in the way the promotion of Brazil as a tourist destination is conducted, all that Brazil will be able to celebrate is achieving the figure of 5.3 million foreign tourists – a record-number reached in 2000 and matched just now in 2011), a figure that leaves Brazil as an insignificant player in world tourism. The new strategies must above all embrace the way travelers of the XXI make their travel plans.

Nudism in Brazil is restricted to a handful of official nudist beaches – and extended in an unofficial way to a series of other remote beaches. If you want to go nude or topless make sure you check it is allowed wherever you are. The general rule is: minute (nearly invisible) bikini? Yes, you can. No bikini top? No, you can’t. If you read Portuguese you will the see the reality is slight more complex: A polêmica do topless nas praias do Rio de Janeiro. But as a rule of thumb, that should do.

There is no law in Brazil regulating naturism. For that reason, official nudist beaches receive that recognition from the local authorities. The Brazilian portal UOL put together a map of the official nudist beaches in Brazil.

They are:

• Abricó (in Rio de Janeiro)
• Barra Seca (in Linhares, Espírito Santo)
• Galheta (in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina)
• Massarandupió (in Entre Rios, Bahia)
• Olho-de-boi (in Búzios, Rio de Janeiro)
• Pino (in Balneario Camboriú, Santa Catarina)
• Pedras (in Palhoça, Santa Catarina)
• Tambaba (in Conde, Paraíba)

Here at the Brazil Travel Blog we published our own list of top 10 Brazilian beaches, in case you want to have a look at it. Of the clothed version, mind you!

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Reflections on Living in Brazil (split on Part One and Part Two) are yet another superb serving from our friend and much-admired travel writer Michael Sommers. The merit for the text is entirely his so go and check it out at his Thrill of Brazil blog!

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Google’s Street View mapping facility has been available for a score of Brazilian cities for quite some time now (we have details of the arrival of the service at our blog post Google’s Street View has landed in Brazil).

The news is that Google is now taking its cameras to an unexpected destination: the Amazon river and the jungle nearby. Read more about this fascinating project at Google’s official blog: Street View goes to the Amazon.

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I recently came across some data from Embratur that caused me quite a lot of surprise (accesible through edition 972 of Jornal Panrotas).

The first surprise was to learn that only 7,5% of foreign tourists arriving in Brazil visit the northeast states of Brazil. I was expecting a much higher figure. The second surprise was motivated by the 40% of foreign tourists that visit the state of São Paulo.

Those figures are quite interesting as they reveal the ever-increasing role of business trips. Without the tourists that arrive in Brazil to attend a conference or a trade fair, and those that come to do business of one kind or another, Brazil’s share in world tourism would be negligible. By focusing on business tourists, we believe Embratur is making a costly mistake. Help for independent travelers is hard to come by and is condemning Brazil to an irrelevant role in world tourism.

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The title of this blog post summarizes the problem I am facing. A couple of Brazilian official tourism sites have been making unauthorized use of the content of my De viaje a Brasil travel blog (the Spanish counterpart of this Brazil Travel Blog). For quite some time. I am publishing this blog post in the hope that you will be kind enough to circulate the story.

In September 2009, the first time I discovered my content was being copied without authorization, I published (in Spanish) an open letter to Embratur (Embratur being the government agency responsible for the promotion of Brazil as a tourist destination abroad). I was then contacted by the parties involved and received an apology along with a few unfulfilled promises (respuesta de Descubra Brasil y la Embratur).

Present time, January 2011. A new leaflet with advice for foreign tourists and published by the Brazilian Embassy once again makes unauthorized use of my blog’s resources (web del gobierno brasileño vuelve a copiar información de este blog).

Being copied is a form of flattery. Even more so if you consider the agencies copying content from my blog have at their disposal the vast resources of the Brazilian Ministry for Tourism. But flattery shouldn’t be interpreted as a free-for-all policy where you do as you please with regard to copyright laws. Even more so when the culprit is a government agency.

I don’t know if you know of any other country where institutional travel information is being sourced from independent travel blogs – in an unauthorized manner and with scant regard for the blogger’s rights. Most of us travel bloggers work with scarce resources and no financial backing whatsoever. And yet with minimum resources we manage to produce useful information.

I feel I shouldn’t let it go. One thing is having your blog content stolen by scrappers. A completely different thing is having the authority copying and pasting from you.

A few weeks have gone by and so far I haven’t heard a single word from the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism.

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Riotur is the official tourism agency for the city of Rio de Janeiro. At its information-packed website (we reviewed it here at the blog at the new official Rio Guide) you will find a very interesting text entitled Rio in 48 hours – The best of Rio in two days.

The text contains a very nice introduction to the city to those with not much spare time in their hands. The step-by-step guide contains tips on sights, transportation and food.

During your stay in Rio grab a computer to check out these top travel blogs from Online Schools. Search through the archives and you are sure to find more places to visit in Rio. With these blogs, you may want to spend more time than two days on vacation!

Our main entry on Rio de Janeiro at the Brazil Travel Blog is destination: Rio de Janeiro. At the end of this blog post you will find a list of other entries we have published with information on Rio.

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Rio bus station: Terminal Novo Rio

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The World Cup 2010 is over and it seems the appropriate time for the launch of our new project, devoted fully to the soccer world cup that will take place in Brazil in 2014. Its name is the World Cup Brazil 2014 and its main goal is to provide tourists with reliable and trustworthy travel information related to Brazil during the sporting event.

Our main focus is not the sporting side of the event. What we want is to help tourists decipher the host cities and help them make the most of their time in Brazil. The core of the project is a blog with news and a Host Cities menu where we will develop the information related to each city.

As well as the website, we have created a Twitter profile.

Along with the new The World Cup Brazil 2014 goes a parallel project in the Spanish language: el Mundial de Brasil 2014.

With the new additions to our portfolio we have now nine pages dedicated to provide independent travel information on Brazil:

• Brazil Travel Blog, in English, with general travel information on Brazil
• Accommodation in Brazil, in English, with accommodation listings for the main tourist destinations in the country
• D Airfare, in English, with news on flight deals and texts to help our readers find the best possible airfare to travel to Brazil and within the country too
• The World Cup Brazil 2014, in English, with travel information related to the World Cup 2014
• De viaje a Brasil, in Spanish, with general travel information on Brazil
• Blog de São Paulo, in Spanish, with information on the largest Brazilian city
• Alojamiento en Brasil, in Spanish, with accommodation listings for the main tourist destinations in the country
• D Vuelos, in Spanish, with news on flight deals and texts to help our readers find the best possible airfare to travel to Brazil and within the country too
• el Mundial de Brasil 2014, in Spanish, with travel information related to the World Cup 2014

As well as two Facebook pages and 8 Twitter profiles. They are all individual efforts for which the Brazilian tourism authorities have given us no support whatsoever. In a kind of way, it is a true blessing as complete independence is one of our core assets.

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RELATED POSTS:
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May’s here and Brazil gets closer to winter. During the month of April here at the blog we described the island of Fernando de Noronha as an ideal honeymoon destination for nature lovers.

For those interested in attending a soccer game while in Brazil, we gave details of the Brazilian soccer championship 2010. And we saw how less than two months away from the initial kick-off, the World Cup atmosphere begins to mount.

We added a new destination card to the blog, a lovely little town in the state of Minas Gerais: Mariana.

We are now adding Facebook and Twitter to our acommodation listings.

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is 50 years old, and to celebrate it we produced a photo ebook you can download for free at Brasilia 50.

For a totally off-the-beaten track experience, we told you what is like to eat Amazon fish at the peixaria do Jokka Loureiro fish restaurant in Manaus.

Torrential rain forced the authorities to close access to part of the Iguazu falls visiting area.

Finally, we explained that Brazil now has a new standard for plugs & sockets.

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The Brazilian authorities have recently adapted a new standard for plugs and sockets throughout the country. The good news is that, in the future, Brazil will have just the one type of socket. The bad news is that the authorities chose a new standard incompatible with the existing Brazilian sockets and with the standards of the rest of the world.

The new socket looks like the one on the image at the beginning of the entry. It has three round holes. Plugs with two round holes (like the ones found in some European countries) will work when inserted in the new sockets.

The new plug can have either two or three pins (for grounded plugs).

Those wanted to know more about the change can check the PDF published by Inmetro (in Portuguese only), that can be downloaded here: Conheça o padrão brasileiro de plugues e tomadas.

New domestic appliances purchased in Brazil must, by law, come with the new plug. But the change in sockets is likely to take a long time, as I can’t see anyone rushing to buy new sockets and change the entire electrical instalation at home or at the office.

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