South African Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, and his Brazilian counterpart, Vinicius Nobre Lages, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on co-operation in the field of tourism, on the sidelines of Brazil’s travel agency association, Associação Brasileira de Agências de Viagens’ (ABAV), Travel Tradeshow in São Paulo.
The fifth BRICS Summit held in Durban, identified tourism as one of the critical areas for prioritisation by member countries of BRICS. “We have now signed bilateral MoUs with all member countries of BRICS and we look forward to the potential offered by these emerging markets,” Hanekom said. 
The signing ceremony, which coincided with ‘Meet South Africa Week’, was preceded by the opening of South African Tourism’s office in São Paulo on September 23. SAT hosted its first Ubuntu Awards on the same day, in recognition of tour operators who have successfully promoted South Africa as a premier global destination.
The South Africa-Brazil MoU is the first in the field of tourism that the SA government has signed with a South American country. It seeks to co-ordinate efforts for sustainable promotion of tourism, responsible tourism, the expansion of tourism relations between the two countries, the exchange of tourist information, publicity and exhibition materials, the growth of tourism training and technical assistance; and to combat sexual exploitation of children in tourism.
“The Brazilian market is very important to us. Our latest annual tourism arrivals statistics revealed 8% growth from South America in 2013. This was driven by arrivals from the Brazilian market, which grew at 5,6% last year,” said Hanekom.   cmBrazilMoU