Vinicius Lummertz said during the event in Santa Catarina that the installation of casinos in Brazil could attract foreign tourists, provide healthy fun and responsible gambling in the country, instead of different current clandestine gaming that exists in the country without any social benefit.
Since taking over the Tourism portfolio, Lummertz has raised the issue of gaming as an important source of investment, growth and development for tourism in the country.
"Brazil has the potential so that the tourism sector can double in size in a short time, but for that we have to reduce costs, take electronic visas to other countries, implement the licensing program for national and marine parks, favor historic cities and the theme parks, not forgetting to advance in themes in the foreign capital of the air and the liberation of the casinos," he said.
On other occasions, he has already defended the authorization of casinos in Brazil pointing out that the country could attract more than US$ 13.5 billion in investments and income. Brazil can not be a bubble," he said.
In yesterday's event, besides the casino issue, the minister made harsh criticism of "bureaucratization, judicialization and cost Brazil," which he called "anti-entrepreneurship thinking." According to him, these obstacles play against national development and "make it a locked country, closed to the world" without the maturing of the business environment that can attract high-quality investments.
The minister said that despite the unfavorable business environment, Brazilian tourism has been growing faster than the country's own economy. “According to the Competitiveness Study of the World Economic Forum, while the Brazilian economy occupies the 72nd position in the overall Competitiveness Ranking of the World Economic Forum, we are the 27th in the world in the Travel and Tourism Ranking of the entity. That is, tourism is three times more competitive than the global economy of Brazil, and this is historic: it is not today that tourism GDP grows more than the economy itself," he said.
Lummertz also spoke of the movement "Tourism, our work generates jobs" by noting that the sector is the one most able to create jobs in the next four years in Brazil. "While the automotive industry increases productivity but decreases the number of jobs, in tourism technology and innovation generate more and more jobs, because as you facilitate the conditions for the tourist to travel, more people are hired to meet this demand," he explained.
The minister also reported the progress made by Brazilian tourism this year. He cited the implementation of electronic visas, which increased the movement of visitors from the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia by 40%; deregulation of charter flights; the increase from 90 to 180 days in the work visas of cruise ship crews; and the measures that are in the agenda in the Chamber of Deputies, such as the transformation of Embratur into an agency and the opening of capital of airlines.
Source: GMB/ Ministério do Turismo
