'Los hermanos' visiting the south region of Brazil: a comparison between drive tourists and coach tourists from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay

Abstract

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and borders every other South American country, apart from Chile and Ecuador. With a landmass of 8.5 million km2, and about twice the size of Europe, Brazil is Latin America’s financial and commercial powerhouse, accounting for approximately 45 per cent of South America’s total economic output. In Latin America, Brazil is second only to Mexico as a tourism destination and, in 2006, had the world’s eighteenth largest travel and tourism sector (Mintel 2006). In 2007, Brazil received 5.02 million international visitors, with the nation’s largest inbound markets being Argentina (18.3 per cent of all international visitors), followed by the USA (13.9 per cent), Portugal (5.6 per cent), Italy (5.4 per cent), Chile (5.2 per cent), Germany (5.1 per cent), France (5.1 per cent), Uruguay (4.5 per cent), Spain (4.3 per cent) and Paraguay (4.1 per cent) (DPF and Embratur 2009).