World Cup tourists expected to spend US$10.4 billion in Brazil
Foreign and Brazilian tourists are expected to spend US$10.4 billion during next year's World Cup, more than the public funds invested for staging the event, the Brazilian tourism board has hinted.
"These are important resources which fuel economic sectors of all Brazilian regions, from aviation to the informal economy," the President of State Tourism Board Embratur, Mr Flavio Dino, said.
He recalled that the Confederations Cup, a 15-day dry run last June for the World Cup, injected US$311 million in the Brazilian economy.
It was staged in the middle of massive nation-wide street protests in which hundreds of thousands of Brazilians demanded a better quality of life, an end to corruption and railed against the high cost of staging the World Cup and the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
A month later, World Youth Day, a major Catholic youth fest held in the presence of Pope Francis in Rio, injected another US$502 million into the economy.
And Dino said that even if revenues did not totally cover investments for major events, it was important to note that one out of three reals invested by the federal government for the World Cup was disbursed to upgrade urban mobility projects in major cities.
He added that apart from immediate gains, events like the World Cup and World Youth Day gave Brazil a visibility that would normally took "decades" to obtain.
"Some see major events as gobbling up resources that could be allocated to public services. I prefer to see them as a big gamble on a new development project which obviously encompasses an urgent modernization of public services," the Embratur chief said.
What will Ghana spend
Presently, it is still not clear what Ghana will spend on its contingent to the World Cup in Brazil.
While some officials in government are mentioning US$21 million, others, including the sector Minister, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, told Parliament that the football governing body is yet to submit its budget.
In the last two previous editions, huge sums of money voted for the tournament could not be properly accounted for.
In spite of the incessant pressure on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to account for the money proved futile because of the intervention of FIFA which warned the government to stay away from the affairs of the GFA.
It is, however, ironic to learn that in spite of the sponsorship packages that some companies are providing, the government will still have to top up with taxpayers money, yet when it is time for accountability, FIFA will step in to GFA’s defence.
It is expected that this time round the GFA will be more transparent in its action and avoid sending characters whose presence on the technical team are not needed.
The sector minister must ensure that Ghana would leverage the tournament by citing a Ghana Village at all the centres the Black Stars will be based to enable the appropriate state agencies such as the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Ghana Tourists Board (GTB) and the Ghana Export Promotion Agency (GEPA) to sell the country to visitors.
Many countries will not be in Brazil only for the fun but will ensure that they leverage the huge sums from their taxpayers by marketing their countries and Ghana must be no exception.