World Cup Brazil 2014

With the fast growth of tourism in Brazil, the number of people looking for accommodation with high levels of comfort, personalized services, unique decoration, discrete location (the so called Charming Hotels) is also growing.

Roteiros de Charme (Tours of Charm) is the private association which congregates the Charming Hotels in Brazil. The past year alone, more than one hundred hotels applied to join the group; however, only two of them were approved.

Hotel Villa Bahia (photo) is located in Pelourinho, heart of the Historic Center of Salvador (itself a charming World Heritage Site), in the State of Bahia; two old mansions of the 17th and 19th Century were refurbished to give place to the hotel. There are only 17 suites (with acoustic insulation), swimming pool and a terrace with a view to the Pelourinho.

The other new member of the Charming Hotels is Pousada do Engenho (Pousada = Inn; Engenho = old farm), in the city of São Francisco de Paula, about 120 km distant from Porto Alegre, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

The Charming Hotels are spread across 13 States of Brazil; there is at least one hotel in 10 of the 12 cities which will host matches of the World Cup 2014. Salvador and Porto Alegre, mentioned above, are two of the host cities; Brasilia and Cuiaba are the two host cities with no hotels.

Below, a sample of other Charming Hotels in Brazil.

Hotel Rosa dos Ventos, Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro. None of the hotels is in the capital city. Hotel Rosa dos Ventos (photo above), in the Imperial city of Teresópolis, is the oldest member of the club (Teresópolis is where the Brazilian Confederation maintains a training center). See more hotels in Rio de Janeiro.

Sao Paulo. Likewise, no hotel in the capital city. Chateau La Villette, up the mountains of Campos do Jordão (120 km from the capital) has been Charmful since 2000. See more hotels in Sao Paulo.

Belo Horizonte. No hotel in the city. Solar da Ponte, in the Historic city of Tiradentes, is a good option. Check out hotels in Belo Horizonte.

Curitiba. Only one hotel: La Dolce Vitta, less than half an hour drive from Arena da Baixada, the stadium which will stage matches in the city. See other hotels in Curitiba.

Recife. There are three hotels near Recife, and all deserve mention. Pousada do Amparo is located in Olinda, which exhalates History, culture, music and party in every corner. Pousada Zé Maria and Pousada Teju-Açu are the best accommodation options in Fernando de Noronha, a paradisiac island off the Brazilian coast, still unknown to foreign tourists, but a favorite among Brazilians. See other hotels in Recife and other hotels in Noronha.

Natal. Two hotels. Manary is in the capital, Natal, and Toca da Coruja is in Pipa beach. See other hotels in Natal and hotels in Pipa.

Fortaleza. The only charming hotel in the state of Ceara is Orixás Hotel, about 120 km from the capital Fortaleza. See other hotels in Fortaleza.

Manaus. Anavilhanas Lodge, right in the middle of the jungle, about 180 km down the river from the capital Manaus. See other hotels in Manaus.

The Ministry of Tourism in Brazil is still in the process of re-creating the Classification System of Means of Accommodation. Meanwhile, it is not easy for potential guests to find an unbiased evaluation of hotels in Brazil.

Veja, the most influential Brazilian magazine, published some time ago a guide of best hotels in Brazil; the guide sorts hotels by city and event (such as “the best hotel for the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo“), and is still a good indicator of the finest hotels in Brazil.

In Sao Paulo: Hotel Unique (photo below),  Sofitel, Transamerica, Grande Hotel Senac. See other hotels in Sao Paulo.

In Rio de Janeiro: Le Meridien, Sheraton, Pousada Pardieiro. See other hotels in Rio de Janeiro.

In Santa Catarina: Plaza Blumenau. See other hotels in Florianopolis.

In Salvador: Bahia Othon. See other hotels in Salvador.

In Curitiba: Mabu Royal and Premium Hotel. See other hotels in Curitiba.

In Brasilia: Melia. See other hotels in Brasilia.

In Recife: Atlante Plaza. See other hotels in Recife.

In Natal: Serhs (photo below). See other hotels in Natal.

In Fortaleza: Bluetree. See other hotels in Fortaleza.

In and near Manaus: Tropical, Amazon River, Crowne Plaza. See other hotels in Manaus.

Read also: best hotels in Brazil.

FIFA, CBF and the Brazilian Government have manifested preoccupation with airports and stadiums, but there is another point which deserves concern: hotels.

Brazil never saw Tourism as a priority.

The board below, extracted from a report by the Brazilian Travel Authority (which, in turn, was compiled based on information provided by the World Tourism Organization), shows the participation of Brazil in international tourism in the World and in South America.

According to the board, in 2007 (most recent data produced by BrazilTour), out of more than 900 million travelers who took international trips, only 19 million came to South America, and just a measly 5 million came to Brazil.

That means that Brazil has a share of about 0.56% (that is less than one percent) of total international tourism. And the board shows that that figure hasn’t been changing much in recent years.

Of course, this has repercussions in the hotel sector, both in quantity and quality.

It is uncertain whether the current hotel infrastructure will be capable of handling all the flux of tourists in 2014.

FIFA requires that each host city have a minimum number of hotel rooms, in proportion to the capacity of the respective stadium; several new hotels are being built, but it is up to private entities to assess the risks and determine how many unities will be built.

Belo Horizonte and Brasilia aspire to hosting the opening match of the Cup, but one serious restriction they face is their limited availability of hotel rooms. In Rio de Janeiro, where the final match of the Cup will be staged, cruisers will be used as hotel rooms.

An then there is the quality of services. Staff of most hotels don’t speak any language other than Portuguese; recently, the Government launched a programme called Ola, Turista (Hi, Tourist), to teach, using the internet, tourism workers (hotel and restaurant staff, taxi drivers, etc) to speak English and Spanish.

Brazil have several resorts and upscale hotels all around the country (in Brazil, the Travel Authority used to award Stars to evaluate hotels, but the concept was abandoned long ago – so, all Five Star Hotels in Brazil are self-attributed honours), but those have been serving a limited number of visitors. In case a large number of customers demanding high quality services come to Brazil (it must be remembered that these customers will have to dispute with the National Teams), there can be shortage of rooms.

Anyone who stays in the Copacabana Palace in Rio or the Hilton in São Paulo knows that those are five star hotels. But how about the other less known hotels?

Today, there are not official standards to rank hotels by quality of services, comfort levels, prices, etc. Classifications mentioned by the hotels or travel agencies are usually self-attributed.

The Minister of Tourism has just announced a project to establish norms and standards for the hotels in Brazil. Among the actions of the project, are included: creation of a reference hotel, against which other hotels may be compared; creation of a seal of quality; creation of a matrix of references, which shall be used to categorize hotels.

This matrix will separate hotels in classes (resorts, inns, ranch hotels, jungle hotels, historic, urban, bed and breakfast) and categories, (from one to five stars). The classification and categorization, as well as the issuing of seals of quality, will be made by Inmetro, the Brazilian Institute of Weights and Measures (see notice).

The General Law of Tourism, passed in 2008, already provided for a kind of standardization of tourism services. Among other measures, the law determined that all travel related establishments should be profiled and classified by the Government.

So far, little of the law was implemented though. It is the expected influx of (demanding) international tourists during the World Cup 2014 which is moving the Brazilian government to improve the quality of hotels in Brazil.