Interest in Brazil has increased every day. At least that’s what TikTok says: recent data from the platform shared with CNN Travel & Gastronomy reveal a 80% increase in global searches for the term “Brazil” in 2024 compared to the previous year.
A quick search on the platform indicates that, currently, the hashtag “Brazil” has over 7.3 million pieces of content. The numbers also end up reflecting the travel sector: according to TikTok, publications related to the country increased by 33% in 2023, being 30% of content related to tourism.
Growing interest in the country caused an organic “public relations effect” to develop, resulting in trends from foreign users about trips or plans to visit the country.
“We say TikTok has a cultural impact. And this cultural impact expands beyond content. Creators impact their communities because they can find people who care. Imagine people interested in travel and interested in Brazil. This has an effect in real life,” he says. Maíra Carvalho , director of operations at TikTok in Brazil .
There is no clear answer that explains in detail the increase in interest, but the director bets that music, aesthetics, culture, food and our cities have made a difference. “I think Brazil is interesting in itself. The other thing is that there are several creators who find passionate conversations”, he says.
Increase in international tourists
The expansion of publications related to Brazil coincides with the increase in the arrival and spending of foreigners in the country . In the first nine months of 2024, between January and September, around 4.9 million international visitors arrived in Brazil, which corresponds to an increase of 12% compared to the same period in 2023. The data was released by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with Embratur and the Federal Police.
The total expenditure of these tourists in the first nine months also broke a record: they were left R$30.82 billion in the economy the best result for the period in the last ten years, which corresponds to a growth of 25%, according to the Central Bank.
Embratur projects that Brazil will close the year with 6.6 million international tourists. The number would represent an increase of 11.8% compared to 2023, when 5.9 million of them were registered on national soil. And there’s more: the expectation is to reach 8.1 million foreign visitors to the country in 2027.
Success among the “gringos”
Green and yellow t-shirt, videos of the national team, beaches and Christ the Redeemer. Among millions of content, these are some of the common denominators that are part of the search for the hashtag “Brazil”. Rio de Janeiro, in fact, seems to be the favorite city for foreigners who visit the country and post on the platform. There are more than 2.4 million videos with the hashtag #RiodeJaneiro and more than 11.8 million with the location marked.
A series of videos published this year by foreigners say: “This is your cue to come to Brazil”. They show some of the tours in the Marvelous City, including Carnival at the Sambadrome, afternoons on the beach, visits to the Escadaria Selarón and tours of the favela. The soundtrack is the same, a funk remix.
@tomtravel99 Brazil Rio de Janeiro
#brazil
One video eight-second video that shows the sunset in Ipanema has accumulated 1.5 million likes and more than 6.6 million views. Another shows the Christ the Redeemer from a helicopter ride and has 3.9 million likes and more than 28 million views.
“Whoever is doing public relations in Brazil, it worked. With the amount of TikToks I’ve seen, I’m one step away from booking a flight and enjoying the nightlife,” says one video from the profile @2.ade posted in March. The content has accumulated more than 1.7 million views.
Some went further: resident of Atlanta, in the United States, user @wowkarauhl made a vlog of his trip to Rio in April. “Brazil’s promotion is working. Why am I nervous at the airport right now?”, he published, before stepping onto national soil, with a video that has more than 900 thousand likes and five million views.
The solo trip resulted in videos that include moments on the beach, motorcycle rides with a guide and even paragliding. One of videos shows the content creator wearing a green and yellow t-shirt with the following words: “When you were nervous to travel alone to Brazil, but everyone treats you like family”.
What engages?
In the end, What makes a video viral? According to TikTok, which has a base of 1 billion users worldwide, there is no miracle formula, but some “golden tips” can retain users’ attention. Number of followers, for example, are not synonymous with distribution.
The first thing is to have a narrative construction that is interesting. You need to hold people’s attention, so the first three seconds are very important. It is not a metric based on account size. Another very important thing is: how do you enter into a conversation that exists? We talk about trends
Maíra Carvalho, director of operations at TikTok in Brazil
On the platform, there is a lot of content referring to Lençóis Maranhenses by Brazilian creators. The beauty of this UNESCO Heritage Site is the theme of the videos. But a different look at the same place also helps to show more of Brazil to Brazilians themselves. Did you know that there is quicksand between the dunes? Or even that it is possible to find water under the sand, by digging and reaching the water table?
This is what the couple shows Laís and Renan Jereissati behind the profile @traveleiros, which has 2.9 million followers on the platform. The first video has 10.5 million views, while the second has 11.6 million.
“One factor we use as part of content creation is to awaken some type of emotion in the audience. Before the content was very rigid, it needed to be the perfect photo, but we brought a bit of reality to our profile. With more real content, full of imperfections, we connect more with the public”, says the couple, who focus on the most curious look.
From Acre to Mato Grosso
@traveleiros Reply to @roselialves05 snake and alligator? What nothing! Let’s go swimming! #Brazil #courage #river #trip #riocroa #vanlife
In the interior of Acre, the Croa River It has become a tourist attraction due to the green vegetation that covers its waters, with inns and restaurants from the riverside community nearby.
Laís and Renan had already seen content about the place, but they always had doubts about whether they could bathe in those waters. They went there and got the flea out of their ears: the video in which Laís dives into the green paste of the river has more than 20.1 million views.
“We started creating content that answers a question instead of telling something without anyone asking,” report the creators. Narrative videos attract more Brazilian audiences, but those without lines, which are part of trends and which show beautiful landscapes, also tend to reach foreigners.
Laís and Renan point out that there is a conversion rate of people motivated to complete a trip after seeing the content. “We already met followers during the trip who said they were there because of us”, they reveal.
Despite traveling the world, the couple invests in motorhome trips around Brazil, which allows them to visit places that are not so “hyped”. What started as a dream in 2020 became reality: in February last year, they visited all Brazilian states. Next year, the goal is to leave Brazil via Chuí towards Ushuaia and then head up the Americas towards Alaska.
“At the same time that we influence, we are also influenced by places we see that we didn’t know existed. It is a beneficial cycle for tourism. Destinations that are not taking advantage of this end up losing out”, says Renan, who uses the example of Nobres, in Mato Grosso. The destination generated a lot of conversation on the couple’s profile, and, in addition to arousing curiosity, it is considered more accessible than other similar places.
The post TikTok sees increased interest in Brazil, including travel appeared first on CNN Brasil V&G.
Source: CNN Brasil
Johanna Foster is an expert opinion writer with over 7 years of experience. She has a reputation for delivering insightful and thought-provoking articles on a variety of subjects. Her work can be found on some of the top online news websites, and she is currently lending her voice to the world stock market.
