Brazil Named Latin America’s Fastest-Growing Tourist Destination

Brazil’s travel and tourism economy is the fastest-growing in Latin America in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), forecast to grow by 7.8 percent in 2012, according to data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

Brazil travel and tourism contributed $9 billion to the country’s GDP in 2011, said David Scowsill, WTTC’s president, and the country’s forecast 2012 rate of growth exceeds countries including Chile and Colombia (both with growth of 4.7 percent) and Argentina and Peru (3.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively).

Travel and tourism in Brazil supports 7.7 million jobs, nearly 8 percent of all employment in the country, and foreign tourist spending totaled $7 billion in 2011.