Brazil was elected as the Latin American country that will host the first office of the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

The country will become one of four around the world where the UN agency specialized in tourism has a presence.

According to the real estate portal of Jornal Económico, Gilson Machado Neto, Minister of Tourism and President of the Deliberative Council of Embratur - Brazilian International Tourism Promotion Agency, celebrated the milestone, reinforcing that this result was achieved thanks to the involvement and close collaboration between the Government and the Ministry of Tourism: "Thanks to the commitment shown so far, we were able to prove our potential to the world and close what is one of the biggest opportunities for Brazilian tourism in decades. The confirmation of an WTO office in Brazil is a great achievement for all of us and for our country", he highlights.

Among the various functions of the new office is the promotion and development of the tourism sector - which includes attracting investment, boosting new startups, conducting and commissioning studies of relevance to the sector, developing a tourist support portal, as well as supporting actions and projects developed by the WTO around the world. It is expected that this office will start operating already this year.

The President of Embratur, Carlos Brito, actively participated in the process that led to the announcement for Brazil and puts the Brazilian Tourism International Promotion Agency at full disposal to collaborate and assist the new office: "We are extremely honored to have been elected to host the WTO in our country and we are sure that we will be able, together with the world's major stakeholders in the tourism sector, to carry out even more promotional actions so that international tourists come to visit the wonderful destinations we have in Brazil", he says.

Although the sector was heavily affected by the pandemic, the recovery of tourism in Brazil is already reflected in the statistics. According to the Minister of Tourism of Brazil, Gilson Machado Neto, "Brazil is the country that has the greatest potential in the post-pandemic period. Today, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism, we have already recovered 88% of our internal tourist flow. Few countries in the world can say that".

Airlines have reworked some 80% of operations to Brazil, and some hubs are already running at 100% - such as Recife Airport, which has already surpassed 2019 numbers. In parallel, recent vaccination data shows positive progress, with 328.5 million doses applied, 161.2 million Brazilians with the first dose (91.5%) and 143.7 million (80.9%) with the complete vaccination scheme.