Rio de Janeiro Strives to Turn Olympics Games District Barra into Tourist Hotspot

In a bid to take advantage of the international attention Barra de Tijuca will receive during the Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro wants to turn the area into a new tourist hotspot in Brazil’s most iconic city.

The project was conceived by city officials, the Brazilian Hotel Industry Association, or ABIH, and the Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau.
 
The idea is to make permanent use of the 15,000 hotel rooms – from luxury hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Trump – that will be used for the event.

The district has Latin America’s most advanced sports facilities, including the world’s first Olympic golf course. Tour operators are trying to promote these facilities.

Barra, uninhabited 50 years ago, also boasts Latin America’s biggest convention center, exciting night life, discos and 18 big shopping malls, one of which brings together the biggest global luxury brands in one place.

“Conditions are ripe in Barra to become a new tourist hotspot within the larger destination of Rio city,” Rio ABIH and Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau president Alfredo Lopes told EFE.

An effort is being made to promote the area’s attractions worldwide to ensure “a balanced and uninterrupted flow of (tourists) for a healthy occupancy rate” and to launch a “guidebook, map and logo” to reinforce its own identity, Lopes said.

Another strategy is to convert the area into an important center for large-scale corporate events. In 2015, Barra was chosen as the venue for more than 50 conferences and fairs, attracting over 800,000 participants and $1 million in earnings.

What was earlier an isolated region with just two access roads is now completely connected to the rest of the city thanks to the Olympic Games, with no less than three exclusive road networks for buses, including an expressway to Rio’s international airport, as well as a Metro line that is under construction.