Brazil Tries to Kick-start Tourism
1. Read the text.
Brazil has everything to offer the visitor: 7,300 km of coastline, much of it empty, endless beaches; the planet’s biggest rainforest; an area of wetlands full of alligators and jaguars; colonial cities and spectacular waterfalls.
The Bahia coast in north-east Brazil is a particularly attractive area for tourism. Several luxury resorts have been built there. Recently, a $170 million five-hotel complex at Sauipe opened. With its 18-hole golf course and designer shops, Sauipe is hoping to attract rich foreign visitors.
The tourist industry had problems in the past because of high inflation which led to short-term planning. Hotels, however, are long-term investments, often with payback periods of over 15 years.
If resorts such as Sauipe are going to attract significant numbers of tourists, they have to solve several problems.
For a start, Brazil needs cheaper and more frequent international air travel. Brazilian airlines have actually decreased the number of scheduled international flights in the past two years because of a currency devaluation.
Foreign visitors also demand a level of service that needs lengthy training – a considerable task for most of the resorts in the northeast which do not have a well-educated population to provide suitable staff.
The other big challenge for Sauipe’s managers is to avoid the social problems that other new resorts have caused, when large numbers of people have come from the interior in search of jobs, quickly creating slums.
The resort is hoping to deal with these pressures by setting up courses in the surrounding villages for making handicrafts which will be sold at Sauipe and by organizing credit for local co-operatives to produce foodstuffs for the hotels.
Some people believe that the developers have not planned the new resorts properly. “Sauipe is a resort without adequate infrastructure, training or planning about how the industry will develop,” says Mario Beni, a professor of tourism at the University of Sao Paolo.
Often created in the middle of nowhere, he says, many of these resorts have poor transport links and no local tourism or sports facilities to take advantage of. “It is time to stop and think about these grand projects,” he adds.
Not true, replies the Bahia state government, which claims to have spent $ 2.1 billion over the past decade on basic tourism infrastructure, from roads to airports to sanitation.
By Geoff Dyer,
From the Financial Times
2. Answer the questions:
1. Where is the Bahia coast?
2. What does Sauipe offer to attract visitors?
3. Who is Sauipe trying to attract?
4. What problems does Brazil face in attracting more tourists?
5. What solutions have been mentioned?
6. What criticism does Mario Beni make about the new resorts?
3. What do these numbers in the text refer to:
| 1. |
2.1 |
4. |
170 |
2. |
15 |
5. |
18 |
3. |
7.300 |
6. |
5 |
4. Find synonyms to the following words in the text:
1. Escape, keep from, evade – __________
2. Wealthy, prosperous, well-off – __________
3. Long, prolonged, extended – __________
4. Often, recurrent, continued – __________
5. Impressive, magnificent, breath-taking – __________
6. Appropriate, apt, proper – __________
7. Important, crucial, weighty – __________
8. Boundless, continual, limitless – __________
9. Answer, work out, resolve – __________
10. Appealing, pleasing, beautiful – __________
5. Explain in English what is meant by:
1. Foodstuffs – __________
2. Luxury – __________
3. Sanitation – __________
4. Local – __________
5. Empty – __________
6. Adequate – __________
7. Resort – __________
8. Payback period – __________
9. Sport facilities – __________
10. To schedule – __________
6. Make as many words as you can using the given roots and suffixes.
Suffixes: -y, -less, -al, -ly, -er, -ment, -tion, -able
Roots:
| 1. |
populate |
6. |
end |
2. |
particular |
7. |
design |
3. |
consider |
8. |
colony |
4. |
length |
9. |
proper |
5. |
invest |
10. |
govern |
7. BIG Word Game!
Make as many new English words from the given ones.
(You may play individually or in teams.)
a) INFRASTRUCTURE
b) HANDICRAFT
c) WATERFALL
8. Write an acrostic on the word BRAZIL (every line of acrostic should start with the letter of the given word: B, then R, then A… etc)
9. Dialog work. In every dialog the task is to find a compromise. Good luck!
1. A is a manager of a hotel, who has just raised the prices of the accommodation in the hotel because of the coming carnival in the town.
B is an annoyed tourist who has come to Brazil on a business trip and has neither time nor desire to go to the carnival and consequently is not very happy about prices being so high.
2. A is a friend who wishes to visit Brazil because he has learned from books and articles that the carnival is awesome there.
B is another friend who is very reluctant to go to Brazil since his dream is to go to far away islands and be free from crowds, noise and grand public events. He is doubtful whether he’ll get this in Brazil.
3. A is the organizer of a Brazilian carnival, who enjoys making money on tourists. So he came to the city mayor to suggest holding a carnival twice a year.
B is the city mayor, who categorically refuses the proposal since the expenses for the city budget are too high, the noise is too loud, there is too much rubbish and to crown it all – it is too annoying for the natives.
10. Group project.
Divide in 2–4 groups of 3–4 students each. Imagine you are planning a new resort.
In a group decide:
• where it would be
• how many people you will accommodate
• what sort of customers you will try to attract
• what facilities you will include
• how many people you will employ
Every team makes a presentation of your project to the class, which is to decide where to go.
KEY:
4. 1. avoid; 2. rich; 3. lengthy; 4. frequent; 5. spectacular; 6. suitable; 7. significant; 8. endless; 9. solve; 10. attractive