Tourism Brings Megabuck Bonanza for Brazilian Economy

Foreign tourists that visited Brazil from January to September this year shelled out over $2.3 billion, up a whopping 33.1 percent from the same period of time last year, the country´s Central Bank informed this week.

According to the banking institution, foreign trippers in Brazil forked over some $220 million in September alone, an 8.2 percent increase compared to the same month a year before.

"For the first time in history, the country has been nicking one record high after another as far as tourism is concerned. That´s why we´re confident we will be able to fulfill our National (Tourism) Plan," Brazil´s Tourism Minister Walfrido Mares Guia explained.

Based on the National Tourism Plan, Brazilian authorities are committed to drawing 9 million foreign visitors to the country in 2007 with expenditures in the neighborhood of $8 billion all through that same year.