Few countries are able to offer as great a variety of tourist options as Brazil. With a land mass the size of a continent - more than 8 million km2 - in terms of area, the nation is fifth in the world, exceeded only by Russia, Canada, the USA and China, occupying almost half of South America. The distances from north to south and from east to west - around 4,300 km in each direction - are greater than from New York to Los Angeles and from Moscow to Lisbon. It embraces contrasting ecosystems such as the Amazon Forest and the Atlantic Forest with their incredibly luxuriant woodlands, the Cerrado (scrublands) and the Caatinga (arid lands) with their twisted trees and landscape that changes radically according to the seasons, the Pantanal (marshland) with its flood plains teeming with an amazingly rich chain of animal reproduction.

Intersected to the north by the Equator and to the southeast by the Tropic of Capricorn, Brazil covers an area equivalent to 16 Frances, 23 Germanys or 28 Italy. Across this landmass, almost entirely located in a low altitude inter-tropical zone, average temperatures are mainly above 20 degrees centigrade. For the tourist, this means the all year round opportunity to enjoy one of the hundreds of beaches that are scattered along the 7,400 meters of highly-favored coastline, with wind systems that are ideal for sailing and activities to suit all tastes: white sandy beaches, beaches with waves that are ideal for surfers, popular city beaches or semi-wild beaches where few have ever stepped. There are no private beaches in Brazil.

Divided into five geographical regions - North, Northeast, Central-West, South and South-East - the country offers widely differing tourist options in each of them. Although they all have one feature in common in the form of Brazil's natural beauty, each one has its own special feature - something that speaks out - to make discovering Brazil an adventure that runs from rivers, valleys and mountains of rare beauty to a colonial past and history that began in the 16th century.

In the Central-West, formed by the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul is Brasilia the federal district and capital of Brazil. Built according to a scheme designed by the town-planner, Lucio Costa and the architect Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia was inaugurated in 1961 and from the urbanistic point of view, is one of the most important planned cities in the world. A visit to the Central-West is also a visit to a region of great contrast: the old where the bandeirantes or pioneers came rushing during the 17th century, in search of fertile land and gold; and the new where the great economic and demographic surge arrived only with the establishing of the new capital during the second half of the 20th century. It is in the Central-West where, side by side with a landscape formed by hundreds of caves around cities such as Bonito in Mato Grosso do Sul, where flora and fauna flourish in the floods and receding waters of the Pantanal (marshland) and the rivers that rise in Chapada do Guimarães in the Mato Grosso, originate or feed some of the largest hydrographic basins in the entire continent.

This welcome, combined with the architecture of the period during which it was built - Colonial Brazil (1500-1822), Imperial Brazil (1822-1889) and Republican Brazil (1889 onwards) - comprises the ingredients that make this one of the most attractive countries for tourism. To this may be added the vocation of tourism which is closely linked to nature - from which came the name Terra Papagalis, land of the parrots, by which the country was known on ancient navigation charts, and Brazil itself, being the name of a tree with red timber that was common throughout the coastal area at the time of discovery.

With its vast size and the richness of its natural resources, Brazil contains one of the largest biodiversities in the world. Its diversified climate and landscape present innumerable alternatives for special interest tourism where travelers - and explorers - are not confined to the passive contemplation of nature but make journeys that combine leisure, sport, adventure, culture, study and work, covering the most diverse interests and activities, such as incentive travel, hiking, cruising, mountaineering, observing fauna and flora, photography, deep sea fishing and anthropological research.

As one of the world's most dynamic economies, Brazil is equipped with convention centers providing large areas for exhibitions and a hotel infrastructure to host international events, trade fairs and conferences, such as the Rio-92 Conference, when Rio de Janeiro welcomed 122 heads of state and 170 official delegates, accommodating more than 25,000 participants for two weeks. This activity has been increasing as a result of Brazilian participation in world organizations in areas such as the environment, health and engineering, amongst others.

Brazil is served by the major airlines and its hotel network comprises national companies and some of the world's largest hotel chains. With the ever-increasing flow of tourists, opportunities exist in various sectors both for visitors and those wishing to invest in tourism. There are investment opportunities in water sports and the building of marinas; in the urban area with the construction of hotels, theme parks and others as well as in the building and expansion of leisure resorts or super-hotels. This sector has undergone considerable growth in Brazil.

Despite the great potential for development in the sector, tourism in Brazil has not played a representative part in relation to the world context. In 1995, the entry of foreign tourists into Brazil accounted for only 0.6% of world travel. With the aim of stimulating the private sector and investment in tourism, Embratur, a tourism company linked to the Brazilian Government, set up the Tourist Business Stock Exchange with two basic objectives: the redirecting of investment and the diversification of the main destinations of tourism in Brazil, leading to the rational exploitation of potential in each region.

The Brazilian Government has also supported the development of tourism with financing carried out by means of the Embratur-managed investment funds, either alone or in conjunction with the North-East Development Agency (Sudene) and the Amazônia Development Agency (Sudam). Financial support is given as an average of 40 to 65% of total investment and projects must be approved by Embratur.

For long-term financing, support is given via the credit lines set up by the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) which finances on a national basis, investment aimed at the improvement and creation of new tourist attractions. There has been investment of US$ 400 million by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) in Prodetur Nordeste (North-East Region Tourism Development Scheme). Prodetur Sudeste, covering the South-East region, is still being set up. In addition are funds from the Constitutional Fund for Financing the North (FNO), operated by the Bank of Amazônia and directed towards ecological tourism projects in the North region of Brazil.