BRAZIL MUST SEE PLACESY

Even the greatest experts in planning incentive travel - awarded by companies to their employees as a reward for their achievements - agree that destinations such as Rio de Janeiro, Angra dos Reis and Búzios in the South East region, Salvador, Natal and Fortaleza in the North East, Manaus in the North, Brasília in the middle of the Central Plateau, and Foz do Iguaçu in the South, either alone or in combination, leave nothing to be desired by incentive travel groups when compared with the word's more crowded places.

With a modern infrastructure consisting of hotels, resorts, fleets of special buses, limousines and excursion coaches, professional multilingual guides and specialist tour companies (destination management companies) for incoming incentive groups, Brazil offers the best in accommodation, service, facilities, equipment, creativity and quality of service. Adding to all this the country's natural, historical, culinary and artistic wealth - with the major advantage of being able to welcome visitors 365 days of the year - then it is true to say that Brazilian destinations are truly beyond comparison.

Some of the Brazilian cities are what we could call "anchor destinations", not only because they are fully self-sufficient in terms of accommodation, services, attractions, etc. - that is to say, they can offer enough to keep an incentive group occupied for at least five days - but because they are also well served by direct and frequent international flights linking them to the major gateway-cities in the overseas markets from which they have come. In between the anchor destinations are Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, and, in the North-east, Recife and Salvador.

If Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, Recife and Salvador are anchor destinations, many other Brazilian cities can be regarded as additional destinations. That is to say, they are places that do not yet have in their own right the facilities to attract and entertain incentive groups (for at least five days) but they are worth inclusion in an incentive trip in conjunction with an anchor destination.

In the North-east, Natal and Fortaleza are certainly in a position to share any travel itinerary on an equal footing with Salvador or Recife. In Bahia, in addition to the Club Med in Itaparica and the Transamerica hotel on Comandatuba Island, in Ilhéus, we now have the largest and most modern hotel complex in all Latin America: the Costa do Sauípe, about 70 kilometers north of Salvador. With its five luxurious resort hotels and six excellent country-style inns grouped around a convention center, an aquatic center, an equestrian center, a luxurious spa, a gorgeous professional golf course (18 holes), several kilometers of untouched beaches and a great shopping mall laid out like a typical regional fishing village (but with top stores and restaurants), Costa do Sauípe has already become the best domestic destination for group incentive trips and corporate events.

In addition to Rio de Janeiro there is a vast range of interesting options. From Búzios (for one or two day programmes) and the Angra dos Reis area with its various resort hotels (for stays of three or four days), to more distant destinations such as Brasília (one day), Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais (one day) and Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná (two days and a night). All these places have great natural, cultural and historical appeal, as well as other leisure options and individual activities with added value in combination with Rio de Janeiro.

The sophistication of the incentive travel programmes and the increasing demand for different itineraries over recent years has given rise to multi-centre holidays that include more than one destination during the same trip. Brazil can also offer numerous options for programmes of this kind. Here are some of the most attractive possibilities:

Manaus - Rio de Janeiro: with two nights and three days in Manaus, including a full-day cruise on the Rivers Negro and Amazon (at their confluence), a city tour with a cocktail party held in the Teatro Amazonas, a theme party on the banks of the River Negro with a folklore show and a visit into the Amazon forest and an opportunity to help in reforestation - each guest in the group plants a tree seedling and receives a Polaroid photo and a certificate. The next four or five days can be spent in Rio with all that the city can offer for groups of this kind.

Manaus - Brasília - Rio de Janeiro: including the same activities as above but with one day in Brasília in order to discover the appeal of the city that still serves as a model for urban planning in many countries.

Buenos Aires - Foz do Iguaçu - Rio de Janeiro: a wide combination for programmes that need to offer more than one country on their itinerary. For this combination, the ideal is to spend three days (two nights) in Buenos Aires, one night and one day in Foz do Iguaçu and three or four days in Rio where there is an enormous choice of excursions, special activities, theme parties and shows.

Manaus - Brasília - Salvador: this is another combination offering a rich mixture of environment, natural beauty, local culture, cuisine, activities, excursions and theme parties.

To summarize, Brazil is a country that can offer numerous destinations for incentive travel programmes. The choice of combinations is almost infinite and grows each year as more and more cities can offer suitable infrastructures and air travel connections with the rest of the world, and as national and foreign investment multiplies the accommodation available to a standard comparable to that of the most highly developed countries. Without any doubt at all, Brazil is one of the richest and most versatile countries in terms of programme options available for incentive travel.