Ceara is among the favorite destinations of foreign windsurfers

In 2022, more than 13% of Brazilian and foreign tourists who visited Ceará said they traveled to the state for, among other things, a sporting activity. Of the just over 3.01 million domestic and international tourists the state received over the course of the year, about 400,000 tourists fell into the categories of adventure tourism or sports tourism.

“This makes us realize the importance of this sector and that we are working to ensure that the state’s promotion of sports and adventure tourism is increasingly assertive,” says Secretary of State for Tourism, Iruana Albuquerque Guerra.

Often cited as an example of promoting adventure tourism, Ceará knew how to take advantage of the strong winds that placed the state among the favorite destinations of windsurfers of different nationalities. It began to invest in spreading its features for practicing action sports, with initiatives for that marketing In important sporting events, such as the XP Sertões Kitesurf, a long-running race that this year brought together kitesurfers from Argentina, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic, Switzerland and Turkey, as well as Brazilians, sailing up to 460 kilometers along the coast of Ceará.

The investment has yielded good results, helping to boost the economy of many cities, including some previously generally ignored by tourists. “Over the past ten years, there has been a notable real estate expansion in some coastal areas frequented by people interested in action sports, especially sports. Kite surfing. With the greater influx of people, there has also been an improvement in the quality of equipment and services in the field of tourist reception,” emphasizes Irwana.

Secretary Iruana Albuquerque Guerra defends the national campaign to promote the country as a destination for adventure and sports tourism – Personal archive

According to the Latest statistical yearbook Published by the Ministry of Tourism, in 2019, Ceara ranked seventh among the federal units that received the largest number of foreign tourists. In 2021, with the decline of the health crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the state ranked fourth in the ranking. classification.

According to the secretary, he is still a tourist visiting the state to practice his profession paper airplane Or spend on surfing, on average, about 3,500 Brazilian reals. “It’s a very important individual amount for our economy. It proves that the investments made give a return. Furthermore, in places where there is a strong presence of windsurfers, there are a greater number of entrepreneurs. “Many athletes who come looking for an excellent place to practice their sports end up deciding to stay and invest in the state,” she adds.

For Liruana, Ceará and other Brazilian states will benefit from a national campaign that seeks to promote the country as a destination for adventure and sports tourism. An opinion shared by the head of the Brazilian International Tourism Promotion Agency (Imperatur), Marcelo Freixo. In August, Freixo visited the state, meeting with public and private sector agents in the tourism sector and highlighting the “great potential of experiential tourism”, especially adventure tourism which, according to him, is “a big attraction for foreign tourists”.

“We saw the full potential of Kite surfing“This relationship with sports and the reception of foreign tourism is very strong,” commented Freixo, at the time, adding the importance of training the tourism reception and expanding the scope of offering options to visitors. “We know that international tourists are very much looking for experiential tourism, gastronomy and culture, and Ceará as a whole, along with the capital Fortaleza, is very strong in this area. Our goal is to think about how we can keep tourists in these destinations for longer.