I became aware a few months ago of the interest of foreign investors in bringing to Brazil, and to the city of Rio, an integrated resort, in line with the two that were built in Singapore. The integrated resorts are huge tourist complexes that bring together luxury hotels, convention centers capable of hosting major corporate events and trade fairs, international designer stores, casinos and restaurants with the most relevant in world cuisine.
In a few years, integrated resorts became a phenomenon of increased income and attractiveness and gave a boost to the reception of tourists in Singapore, a country/state with similarities with Rio. The city, unlike the Asian island, even hosting the World Cup and the Olympics, did not receive a significant increase of tourists.
As of 2010, the euphoria surrounding improvements in the city's infrastructure gained focus at the expense of increasing tourist reception and qualifying the country as an international destination. In the case of Rio, at the time, the expansion of the oil and gas sector still turbinated the economy and increased the costs of goods and services, making the arrival of tourists more expensive. We also created an unreal vision of the future as the magic solution to our problems.
We can easily see this in world rankings: among the cities that receive the most international tourists, Rio fell from 35º in 2005 to 88º in 2016; and Brazil, with 6.6 million tourists, is far behind Turkey, with 39.5 million; Mexico, 32 million; Thailand, 24 million; and Singapore, with 16.5 million. The existence of aggressive policies, advertisements and encouragement in attracting international tourists has led to good results to these last countries.
I went into the analysis of what was done in Singapore by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who created the integrated resort and in four years took US$10 billion in investments for them. In Rio, where we look for new vocations to the city from the loss of the capital to Brasilia, the integrated resort fits perfect. We need to have expressive investments in the short term and quick revenues, which would be generated by the strong increase in the number of tourists, especially the corporate.
Singapore numbers speak for themselves: from 2009 to now, the number of foreign visitors more than doubled from 8 to 16.5 million a year. The revenue generated by corporate tourism also grew 100% and jumped to $25 billion (Singapore) annually. One of these complexes, Marina Bay, which has become Singapore's trademark with the famous three towers integrated at the top by the infinity pool, employs 9,500 people. As for taxes, the two Singapore complexes raised US$1.5 billion.
Rio and Brazil can not lose this opportunity any more, and it is important that there be an understanding between the legislative and executive powers for the advancement of a modern regulation of casinos, prioritizing and stimulating expressive international investments that generate jobs, income and taxes.
Marcelo Conde is CEO of STX DI, a real estate development company, whose main focus is the incorporation of projects in the areas of Condo-hotels, Hotels and Residence Hotels. Since 2010 it has developed hotel developments, adding to the company's history more than two thousand units in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, Campos dos Goytacazes, Niterói and Nova Iguaçu.
