In recent months, tourists from outside Rio Grande do Sul who want to go to Lawn have faced a few extra hours of travel and difficulties in finding flights.
With the news about the floods that devastated the Rio Grande do Sul territory in May, many visitors ended up giving up on their trip, without knowing that, apart from these small logistical difficulties, the mountain city was little affected by the climate catastrophe.
The good news is that flights from Salgado Filho Airport, in Porto Alegre, already have a date to resume operations: October 2024.
“Today, the biggest loss we have is the airport [de Porto Alegre] which is closed,” said Ricardo Bertolucci, secretary of tourism, to CNN . “Tourism in Gramado basically works like this: weekends with regional tourism, and during the week, national tourism,” he explains. “From Sunday to Wednesday and Thursday, the movement we have in the city is very national, and with the difficulty of air connections, these numbers drop.”
Thus, tourists will once again have more flight options, currently limited in quantity at Canoas Air Base and Caxias airport, which also serves the region and has not stopped operating during this period.
From Porto Alegre to Gramado, a distance of about 120 km, the roads were also little affected by the floods and are functioning normally. In the mountain region, one or two stretches suffered landslides, but there are route diversions and it is possible to travel normally.
“The only access we still have difficulty with is from Caxias to Gramado, because a bridge on the BR-116 collapsed. So to get from Caxias to Gramado, you have to go through a country road,” explains Bertolucci.
Tourist profile changes with floods
In fact, tourists from Rio Grande do Sul, who already know that the city never stops, ensured that hotels were occupied during the winter, reaching 55%, according to the city’s tourism department. In 2023, at the same time, occupancy was 77% of the hotel network.
In recent months, after the floods, the distribution of visitors has been 50% from Rio Grande do Sul, followed by 20% from Santa Catarina, then São Paulo and tourists from Mercosur, such as Paraguayans and Uruguayans.
Proof that the city is regularly hosting major events was the Gramado Film Festival in August.
And the city is already preparing for its next big season, the summer season. In October, the 39th edition of the traditional Christmas Lights which runs until January.
For this year, there are some new features: Grand Christmas Parade which previously took place indoors, will take place on Avenida das Hortênsias — open, but with tickets for sale.
The second new feature is that every night the city will witness a spectacle of lighting up the lights that illuminate the main street, with a luminous dance. The attractions will also be a little earlier, starting at 8 pm instead of 9 pm, giving more impetus to local businesses.
*The journalist traveled to Gramado at the invitation of Connection Terroirs
The post With an eye on tourists from outside RS, Gramado prepares new features for Natal Luz 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.
