Nikolaus Eberl - SA Raised the Bar for Brazil in 2014

By Nikolaus Eberl

Johannesburg - IN A move unprecedented in the history of the Fifa World Cup...

IN A move unprecedented in the history of the Fifa World Cup, 2014 hosts Brazil have launched a global tourism campaign four years before the first game kicks off, to entice football fans to savour the country in 2014.

Inspired by the tremendous destination branding success of the 2010 hosts, Embratur, Brazil's tourist board, has announced an ambitious vision, called Plano Aquarela 2020, aimed at doubling the number of foreign visitors and tripling the value of tourism through the next decade.

After receiving the keys to the World Cup in Johannesburg, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the "Brazil is calling you!" campaign, targeting 400-million consumers in 100 countries at a cost of 30m until the end of this year.

Visibly impressed by SA's success, Lula da Silva said : "The success of our African brothers represents a tremendous challenge to the Brazilian people. We are learning from them to ensure that we will present a World Cup as beautiful as 2010."

In the race to beat the benchmarks set by SA, the Brazilian government has allocated a record World Cup budget that makes SA's 2010 expenditure look like petty cash.

Felipe Cavalcante, president of Adit Brasil, the government- funded association for inward investment in real estate and tourism, says: "It is anticipated that Brazil will spend 50bn on various projects in the 12 host cities. In comparison, Germany needed to spend just 12bn to prepare for the 2006 World Cup. So getting Brazil ready for the World Cup is a big project and huge challenge ."

A big project indeed, seeing that Brazil is intent on outspending the 2010 hosts five times (SA's World Cup budget was capped at 5bn).

Not to be outshone by its predecessor, the Brazilian local organising committee has already commissioned its very own Gautrain, connecting Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which is likely to cost 6bn. A further 2,8bn will be spent to upgrade airports in 10 host cities.

Possibly the most attractive host city destination for 2014 visitors, Rio de Janeiro is undergoing a dramatic transformation of her brand image and investment scorecard.

Almost half a century after losing its status as Brazil's capital, Rio is again becoming the engine of Latin America's largest economy. The city has lured at least two dozen hedge funds in the past decade, as well as the nation's top oil producers.

"It's becoming a virtuous cycle," says Carlos Langoni, a former central bank president and finance chief of the local organising committee for the 2014 World Cup. "They've pacified favelas (shanty towns) you would have thought were impossible to occupy. Real estate prices have surged, Rio's seeing more royalties from oil production and it finally has good politicians."

According to Rio's mayor, Sergio Cabral, the priority in transforming Rio's socioeconomic fortunes has been "cleaning up our house".

For decades before Cabral, Rio politicians shunned private enterprise, and drug-related violence led entrepreneurs to flee to Sao Paulo.

Rio's sinking importance in Brazilian finance was exemplified in 2002 when the Sao Paulo derivatives bourse bought the Rio stock exchange, the nation's oldest.

"The city had lost its identity. It was no longer the capital, the industries left, the financial sector left and a lot of the state- owned companies left once they were privatised.... The most important thing Cabral did above all was the inauguration of a new politics, moulding together various parts of the government with the private sector," says financial analyst Andre Urani.

In a recent survey conducted by Forbes Magazine, Rio was voted the happiest city in the world and this might well have been a factor in the International Olympic Committee awarding the city the 2016 Summer Games .

Come July 13 2014, when Rio's famous Maracana Stadium hosts the World Cup final, will Fifa president Sepp Blatter be in a position to pronounce that Brazil's model of public-private partnerships has produced an event that will be as successful and inspiring as the 2010 showpiece?

- Dr Eberl is the author of The 2010 Scorecard: Converting Visitors to Brand Advocates.

Original Source:
Original date published: 30 July 2010

Source Url: http://allafrica.com/stories/201007300630.html?viewall=1

Posted By: News Poster
.