With the 2014 FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil plus the Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled for 2016, major construction works are taking place to ensure the country is ready for the large influx of tourists, workers and athletes.
For the World Cup alone, predications state around 600,000 foreign tourists and three million local visitors will travel through the 12 host cities next June.
According to a study by BSH International and the country’s Tourism Ministry, a total of USD 5.3 billion is therefore to be invested within the South American nation to create 422 new hotels by 2016; when the capital, Rio de Janeiro, is to host the Summer Olympics.
The report, presented on Thursday via the Brazilian president’s office, also outlined how the new hotels will increase the Brazil’s hotel capacity by 70,531 rooms.
Many of these will already be in operation for the FIFA World Cup, with the report stating 164 hotels should be ready for operation by 2014.
It is predicted the extra influx of tourists will create around 34,000 jobs, mostly in and around Rio de Janeiro, which is where 59% of the planned investment will be concentrated.
The report stated 42 new hotels will be built in Belo Horizonte, a city which is to host FIFA games, and 23 in Rio de Janeiro, the main host city for the football tournament.
Overpricing
Yet the report has come after a recent inquiry by Brazil’s justice ministry into speculation hotel chains are hiking prices ahead of the World Cup.
Whilst all host cities experience some increase, officials suspect the chains in Brazil are overcharging more than usual.
The request was launched after several complaints from consumer watchdogs around the world, and a study by Brazil’s tourism board which found bed rates were to go up around 500% in some of the hotels offered by MATCH Services – the FIFA-appointed agency for ticketing, accommodation and event information.
The Accor, Choice, Nacional Inn and Wyndham chains were among the hotels notified; which now have 48 hours to respond.
”Tourists are consumers which require special protection because they are outside of their city or country,” Director of the ministry’s consumer rights secretariat Amaury Oliva noted in a statement.
He continued: ”We are working to make sure that they are well received and that the services we provide have quality and fair price.”
Earlier this year, Brazil Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo and the official leading development for the FIFA World Cup and Olympics, pledged ”zero tolerance” for hotels charging excessive room rates.
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