More Chinese set to travel to Brazil

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Charmed by the recently ended World Cup and the coming Olympic Games in 2016 inBrazil, more Chinese tourists are interested in visiting the South American nation.

According to the Brazilian embassy in Beijing, more than 5,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Brazil during the World Cup.

"The real total is probably even bigger," said Guiherme Belli, the World Cup affairs specialist from the embassy. “The World Cup was the perfect chance for Chinese tourists to get to know Brazil.”

He said the pull and popularity of the tournament will soon boost the number of Chinese tourists to Brazil to 100,000 a year. In 2012, 65,000 Chinese nationals visited the country.

Because of the high cost and length of flights from China to Brazil, the country is not an ideal destination for Chinese tourists yet. Despite the inflated cost to fly to Brazil during the World Cup, many Chinese tourists traveled more than 30 hours to enjoy the fun.

Lvmama, an online travel agency in Shanghai, arranged trips for more than 1,500 Chinese tourists during the tournament. Costs shot up by about 30-50 percent during the tournament, the agency said.

"Brazil was not a popular tourism destination. We only had dozens of tourists when welaunched outbound trips to Brazil two years ago. But during the tournament, we had more than 2,500 people that asked for information about Brazil," said Zhang Yunan, product director at Lvmama.

Travel agencies said the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Brazil will steadily grow in the next three to five months.

"Brazil is not only famous for the World Cup. The country also has great tourism resources, such as the Amazon rain forest," Zhang said.

Questions:

1. How many Chinese tourists traveled to Brazil during the World Cup?

2. How many Chinese nationals visited the country in 2012?

3. How long does it take to fly from China to Brazil?

Answers:

1. More than 5,000.

2. 65,000.

3. More than 30 hours.

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Julie 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.