Tourism Becomes Brazil’s Third Income Source

International tourism panned out to be Brazil’s third-largest source of income money during the first half of the ongoing year with $1.6 billion worth of revenues, up 46.3 percent from 2003.

The Central Bank reported that the local travel industry only trailed behind soybeans and iron ore as the South American nation’s biggest source of hard-currency money.

Docking the money spent by Brazilian tourists overseas, the travel industry finished in the black with $370 million in the coffers, a fivefold increment from the $65 million earned by the sector in the first half of 2003.

Last year, Brazil welcomed 4.1 million foreign visitors, up 8.12 percent from 2002. The goal of the National Tourism Plan is to crack the five-million-tourist plateau by the end of this year and snare nine million sunbathers in 2007.