Brazil´s Travel Industry Finally Made it Big in 2004

Over the last two years, Brazilian tourism has backpedaled a slumping trend and has now begun to amass a $568 million surplus, according to a report issued by industry experts.

Following a whopping $22.5 billion shortfall between 1990 and 2002, the South American country´s leisure industry managed to turn the tables on that deficit and churn out a $217 million and $351 million surplus in 2003 and 2004, respectively, up a blistering 61 percent between the two years.

In 2004, Brazil´s tourist sector snared a grand total of $3.2 billion worth of revenues, up 30 percent from 2003.

And as far as the ongoing year is concerned, so far so good. Preliminary stats as to the amount of money spent by foreign tourists in the first two months of 2005 indicate gains in the neighborhood of $672 million.