Brazil Welcomes Record-Number of World Cup Fans

Brazil is the country of football and we don’t say this lightly. There are many reasons that lead us to this statement, including:

• The entire nation is crazy about it
• Our team has won the World Cup five times
• We have a very particular way to play football
• Brazil is home to Pelé

The Zeno office is located in São Paulo, at Av. Paulista, which is at the epicenter of all the most important recent manifestations that have happened in Brazil, including the World Cup. São Paulo, the largest city in country, will host the first World Cup 2014 match: Brazil versus Croatia.

Brazil is experiencing a phenomenon that big cities around the world are used to: tourists flooding in from all over the globe.

We are proud and excited to welcome people from different nations and cultures. We just want to say: Welcome to Brazil. Welcome to the World Cup.

As we prepare for the next few weeks of competition, here is a snapshot of what the World Cup 2014 has brought to Brazil:

• We expect to receive more than 600,000 tourists, an unprecedented number for the country.
• By the end of March, FIFA had sold 2.56 million tickets, with half being sold to foreigners: the most lucrative crown of the history of the sport and FIFA.
• More than $4 billion has been raised to-date. This alleviates all of the negative predictions about the event being so expensive. Brazil invested the equivalent of the sum of the crowns of Germany (2006) and South Africa (2010), nearly tripling the initial amount planned.
• A recent survey of Skyscanner – a Zeno client – said that although Americans make up the majority of tourists coming to the event, British tourists are the most confident that their country’s team will win the World Cup.
• About 80 percent of the total population that will be cheering at the stadiums around the country – 12 stadiums in 12 host cities around the country, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo — are Brazilians.
• If Brazil wins (again), the neighborhood around our office will be the stage for the celebrations.