One of Brazil’s leading TV personalities, Marcio Moraes, has been in Abu Dhabi filming five travel destination features on the emirate, which will be aired on the country’s Rede TV network this month, with each episode reaching up to five million viewers.

In the emirate as guests of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and Etihad Airways, the UAE’s award-winning national airline, the visit of the Brazilian crew comes ahead of Etihad’s planned launch, on June 1st, of a daily, non-stop Sao Paolo-Abu Dhabi service - the carrier’s first operation to and from South America.

During an 18-day trip, Moraes covered many of the emirate’s leading attractions, including Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s largest indoor theme park and home to the fastest rollercoaster, Formula Rossa; Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara; Yas Marina Circuit, home to the emirate’s Formula 1™ Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix; and the iconic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque - just named one of the world’s most talked about attractions by TripAdvisor. One of the Rede TV’s episodes will be devoted solely to Etihad Airways.

And the Brazilian star was full of praise for the emirate’s tourism offering, saying it holds out great appeal to visitors from the South American country.

“Abu Dhabi is a unique luxury destination that has everything a Brazilian traveller would want to experience. Fantastic beaches, 5 star hotels, restaurants and Yas Island. And that is only currently. Abu Dhabi has a vision which you can see will change the region. The Saadiyat Island project is fantastic. This city is doing wonderful things such as the opening of the Guggenhiem and the Louvre museums. It doesn’t get much better than this. The vision of the leaders here is very special,” said Moraes

Indeed Moraes was so impressed with the emirate that he’s now tipping Abu Dhabi as a future hot spot for high-end Brazilian travellers – now ranked as among the world’s biggest spenders.

“Abu Dhabi doesn’t really have to do much more. It is already becoming a destination that people from all over the world want to see. As long as it stays on the path it is going on then it will continue to attract. It can cater to all markets as well as the South American market,” said Moraes. “The direct flight from Sao Paulo to Abu Dhabi will open the gates for many South American visitors to experience this destination.

“The high-end of the Brazilian market is looking for new and exciting destinations – and many destinations want them because of the sheer size of their spending power.”

According to the ITB World Travel Trends report Brazilians spent a whopping US $20 billion on overseas travel in 2011 – topping the spending league of all travellers from the Americas with the figure rising by US $16 billion last year when Brazilians notched up a 12% increase in overseas travel.

Moraes was extremely impressed with the emirate’s cultural offerings and felt that out of the 127 countries he’s visited in his 20 years as a travel show host, Abu Dhabi is truly focused on promoting its culture and heritage.

“One of my best experiences was visiting the Emirati farm where we ate traditional food and I got a true Emirati experience and explanation from all the local guys there. I really enjoyed wearing the Kandora and being welcomed so fast. This is not something that happens everywhere. The hospitality here is fantastic,” said Moraes.

Last year some 3,065 Brazilians stayed in Abu Dhabi’s 141 hotels and hotel apartments delivering 14,627 guest nights with an average-length-of-stay of 4.06 nights – one of the highest for any international market. In the first two months of this year some 879 Brazilians stayed in the emirate’s hotels delivering 3,920 guest nights with the average length-of-stay rising to 4.46 nights.

“The trend is upwards for Brazilian guests,” said Mubarak Al Nuaimi, Director Promotions & Overseas Offices, TCA Abu Dhabi. “This is even before the launch of the new non-stop service. Later this month we will mount a destination pavilion at World Travel Market Latin America in Sao Paolo to convince the Brazilian travel trade of our expanding tourism offering and once the Etihad service begins, we should begin to reap the benefits by receiving more Brazilian guests than ever.”

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