The 42nd annual congress and expo of the Brazilian Association of Travel Agents, or ABAV, kicked off yesterday evening, Tuesday, during an unaccustomed lull in Brazil’s still jam-packed event cycle. Brazil had not hosted a World Cup in nearly three months. It had not hosted a World Youth Day together with a Papal visit in nearly 14 months. The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics was not set to start for nearly another 23 months.
In a gala opening ceremony in São Paulo’s glorious old Renault Theater, which, other evenings, hosts the Brazilian production of Disney`s The Lion King, ABAV President Antonio João Monteiro de Azevedo and other speakers repeatedly emphasized the case for optimism — thanks to the boost given to Brazil’s visibility, worldwide, as a result of the recent extremely successful World Cup, thanks to new legislation, and thanks to an internal market growing by leaps and bounds.
On the seminar, meeting, and expo side, 40,000 travel professionals, Brazilian and non-Brazilian alike, will mix and mingle over the next three days in São Paulo’s vast Anhembi Convention Center. Exhibitors will number 3,500 and include the representatives of approximately 65 countries eager to tap into the lucrative and growing Brazilian leisure and business travel market. First time participants this year include South Africa, Mozambique, Morocco, the UAE, El Salvador and Slovenia.
Though in the past the expo side of the event has principally been an occasion for sociable milling and backslapping, ABAV is this year trying out a program of 15 minute business sitdowns as well. The investment in the scheduling software was R$280,000, and one agent buyer interviewed by Travel World News commented, “Seems like a lot of money but there’s no question that it adds real value.”
Stay tuned for daily updates.
ABAV, www.abav.com.br