01/08/2009 14h58
São Paulo received record number of tourists in 2008
DCI 01/08/2009
The tourism indicators in the capital of the state of São Paulo in 2008 have already been closed and the news is very good. Turismo São Paulo (SPTuris - official company for the promotion of tourism and events of the municipality) has just reported the balance of the tourist activity during last year. The survey showed that all the main indices reached record levels. According to SPTuris, the city ended the year with 11 million visitors, from which 9.3 million were national visitors and 1.7 million were foreign ones. The figure is 2.8% bigger than 2007's, when the city received 10.7 million tourists. Compared to 2004, when the municipality was still not promoted as a destination for tourism, growth reached 34.15%. Regarding the revenues from the expenditure of tourists, the total amount was R$ 8.3 billion (US$ 4.5 billion), an increase of 2.47% compared to 2007 and 29.69% compared to 2004. Another record concerned the collection of ISS (Service Tax) with group 13, considering the group of tourism since it includes the expenses with Travel Packages, Lodging and Events. In 2008, the collection of taxes reached R$ 120.2 million (US$ 65.7 million), nearly R$ 9.4 million (or 8.48%) more than last year. Compared to 2004, there was a growth of 58.78%. The hotels of São Paulo also commemorate the rates and show that they have still not felt the effects of the world financial crisis. The municipality ended the year with an average hotel occupation rate of 68.5%, which is considered excellent by the businesspeople of the sector. The number is 2.24% (or 1.5 percent) bigger than the figure from 2007, when the average occupation rate was 67%, and 24.1% (or 13.3 percent) bigger when compared to 2004's figure, when the rate was 55.2%. Another new survey made by SPTuris in partnership with Fipe (Economic Research Institute Foundation) detected the profile of the tourists. Among the national visitors, most are women (54.9%), earn between 5 to 10 minimum salaries (35.3%), are between 40 to 59 years old (53.5%) and mainly come from the interior and the coast of the state (25.7%), from Minas Gerais (13.1%), Rio de Janeiro (9.3%), Santa Catarina (8.8%), Paraná (7.8%), Rio Grande do Sul (5.5%), Bahia (5.1%), Pernambuco (3.8%), Espírito Santo (3,7%) and Mato Grosso do Sul (2,4%).
