Tourists from all over the world arrive to visit the Iguazu Falls, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature- located on the border of Argentina (Iguazú), and Brazil (Foz do Iguaçu). For this reason, in Brazil, the city of Foz is the second entrance door of foreign tourists, and the first door for those who arrive from Asia and the East.
The Secretary of Tourism of Foz, Andre Alliana, said that the city of Foz do Iguaçu (which houses the Iguazu Falls- one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature), is the second entrance door of foreign tourists in the country.
“When we talk about nature, what has more great Brazil, is the Iguazú National Park, so much that we are the second entrance door of Brazil, of European tourists, of Americans and others. And when we talk about the East, of China, Chile, Oceania, Japan, we are the first entrance door of this audience” said Alliana.
And he added “these people come to Brazil with the aim of coming first to Iguazú when it comes from the East, for example, they don’t look for so much beach, they look for nature. So, depending on the place of the world that tourists come to Brazil, we are the second entrance door or we are the first, according to the region of the world they come from”.
Within this framework, Andre Alliana also said that the Iguazu Falls are undoubtedly, one of the most visited attractions in Brazil, “is the third most visited park in all Brazil. But the others do not they have so much nature, for example in Rio de Janeiro, there is the National Park where the Christ Redeemer is (one of the New 7 Wonders of the World), but it has another format, of urbanized area. Then it is very nice too, but another format”.
Growth and investments
In terms of investments, the Secretary of Tourism of Foz, Andre Alliana, said that the new concessionaire of the Iguazu Falls area in Foz, plans to invest 600 million reais (almost 121 million dollars). The objective of this investment is to work over the next ten years to triple the number of visitors in Iguazú Falls.
To do this, they plan to build new visitation spaces, new attractions and more and better catwalks, “because the catwalks we have today lack accessibility, for example a person who cannot walk or has mobility difficulties, cannot take the walk. New catwalks are going to be made, new visiting spaces, also new hiking and adventure options. And there is even talk of a cable car inside”.
For the hotels and the gastronomic sector of Foz it was also positive that the Iguazu Falls are one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, in that sense, the tourism official commented that in a survey they made a while ago, Foz do Iguaçu had 35.000 hotel places, “that’s without counting campsites and others, we are doing a new survey, because the hotel sector has grown a lot in recent years” he said.
And he added that previously they had an overnight average of 2,5 and currently this average is almost 4. But from the sector they work to extend it to 7 days of stay of tourists at the destination.
“Because everyone wins if the permanence of a tourist is increased, if he stays more days, the hotel wins because the tourist stays more nights and the restaurants win because the tourists have lunch and dinner” he said.
Regarding this issue, he recalled that “last year we made a great campaign, to cite just one example. We had a very large campaign in the Brazilian northeast that encouraged the public who lived in this area to come to Cataratas for 7 days. And then the name of the campaign was: come and spend 7 days in one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World”.
The visits
As for the percentage of visits that has had cataracts from the Iguazu in Foz since 2011, Foz’s secretary of Tourism, said the increase in visits was sustained and very well, but had an important decrease in the pandemic, then The average growth was 5% year -on -year.
“The year before the Pandemia we beat our historical record, we reached 2 million, 20 thousand tourists in the Iguazú National Park, and in the city there were about 6 million and now in the 2023 that we are in this recovery process, and we come very much Well, because we close the year with the visit of 1.833.000 tourists in the Iguazu Falls” he said.
He also stressed that average annual hotel occupancy is around 65%. “We do not have much low season, we have two periods of school fairs with a greater occupation. But beyond that, there is more or less well distributed throughout the year, it is not a beach that in the winter there is no one, here people come to God” he said.
On the other hand, Andre Alliana reflected on the Iguazu Falls as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and said that when some environmental or other threat to fate arises, they are immediately reminded that “this place is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature of the World, this place must be taken care of and preserved”.
And he also highlighted that the Falls are very important for the city’s economy. Because the city of Foz do Iguaçu and its surroundings, live from tourism “this is not an industrial area, it is a natural area and everyone lives on the tourism that is generated from the Falls, and when it goes well, we all grow together”.
Finally, he said that on November 11, the day in which a new anniversary of the Iguazu Falls is celebrated as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, they plan to perform a “Cataratas day” with a great musical show, pointing to the sustainability. “We want to celebrate and at the same time make a great environmental awareness campaign, because from the Iguazu Falls we want to send exactly this message, that nature is very nice and wonderful, and it needs to always be preserved for everyone and for the next generations” he concluded.