Q & A with Leonel Rossi Junior, Foreign Affairs Chief of the Brazilian Travel Agencies Association (ABAV)
by Jose Carlos de Santiago
The Brazilian Travel Agencies Association (ABAV is the Portuguese acronym) attended once again the World Travel Market in London in a bid to promote the upcoming Fair of the Americas, one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious tourism events.
Q.- What’s ABAV and how large its membership is?
A.- ABAV is an association that represents 3,200 travel agencies and some 7,000 tour operators that account for 80 percent of all travel sales generated in Brazil. We are attending WTM in London in an effort to promote the Fair of the Americas, the largest tradeshow of its kind in the entire region.
This time around, the Fair of the Americas took place in the month of october and comprised a total surface of 28,000 square meters where 22,000 professional visitors gathered. The one-day general public turnout peaked 10,000 people.
Our association is pretty strong because it holds representations in all 27 Brazilian provinces and the Federal District. In each and every one of those region there’s a regional chairman. Just to paint you a clearer picture of what ABAV is actually like, I must say that our association deals directly with airlines. For instance, we filed a lawsuit that eventually forced air carriers to keep on paying us commissions for six more years. That’s an example to show the strength of the association.
Q.- Have you signed agreements with other travel agency associations within Brazil?
A.- ABAV is the largest of all travel agency associations. We also have a group that gathers tour operators in such provinces as Sao Paolo. However, ABAV is the dominant force among travel agencies in Brazil and the rest of the groups spin around ABAV.
Q.- How long has the Fair of the Americas been going on?
A.- For 37 years running.
Q.- Is it truly the largest travel tradeshow in Latin America?
A.- I don’t know exactly, but I’m afraid it’s the largest travel marketplace in the region right now. It used to be held in a different city each year but now we decided to make Rio de Janeiro the fair’s permanent host town in a bid to make it grow. Over the past four years since we made the decision of making Rio the permanent host city the tradeshow has posted a walloping 51 percent increase.
Q.- Where are the groups investing in Brazil’s travel industry coming from?
A.- A considerable chunk of investors hailing from Spain, Portugal and Italy. French hotel chain Accor is maybe the largest foreign investing group in Brazil right now with as man y as 150 lodgings. Many other hotel companies are equally interested in moving in with investments of their own. A number of international air carriers are also making their move in a bigger way every time. A good case in point is Portugal’s TAP with 45 flights a week to Brazil, chiefly to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Salvador de Bahia, Recife, Natal and Fortaleza.
Q.- What do you make of fairs like WTM, ITB and FITUR viewed from an independent angle? First of all, your opinion on WTM, the world’s third-largest travel tradeshow.
A.- I like WTM to do business. Yet I believe FITUR generates a larger volume of businesses right now. ITB is a huge marketplace with 170,000 square meters of exposition surface. Nonetheless, I think that from an institutional standpoint no other fair contributes more than this one here in London. I must also say there’s one fair, the one held in Milan, which I’ve acquired a great liking for. But this one here in London is pretty good.
WTM 2005 packed 38,000 square meters of exhibition surface. The Fair of the Americas in Brazil was just 10,000 square meters shy of WTM. So, that means we’re not lagging that far behind.
