The number of national and international passengers at Salvador’s International Airport in 2009 grew 11.8% in comparison with the previous year. According to Infraero, company that administrates the terminal, 2.90 million of people disembarked in Bahia’s capital last year, against 2.57 million in 2008. This figure consolidates Salvador’s airport as the busiest of the North/Northeastern regions of Brazil.
Photo: Rita Barreto/Setur
According to the data of the Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas – Fipe (Institute Foundation of Economical Researches), 9 million people come to Bahia every year and a third of this total passes by the state during high season, between the months of December and March. The same study also reveals that the business and congress areas are responsible for 24% of the number of tourists.
In 2009, the majority of passengers that arrived in the city in the second semester came after the re-growth of tourism in the entire country. According entities such as Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Hotéis – ABIH (Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry) and the Associação Brasileira dos Agentes de Viagem –Abav (Brazilian Association of Travel Agents), the bad performance of last year’s first semester was a consequence of the world economical crisis, which reduced the number of trips in the whole country.
According to Bahia’s Secretary of Tourism, Domingos Leonelli, several events in Salvador contributed to the growth of the sector in the second semester of 2009. “In June, we had Saint John’s Festival; in August, the Stock Car Race and in September, the Brazilian Cardiology Congress. These events boosted the hotel sector and increased the number of tourists in the second half of last year”, evaluates Leonelli.
