RIO DE JANEIRO, May 13 — For those who think Rio’s hotels seem a tad expensive at the World Cup, there are always alternatives — perhaps a room in a “love hotel” or in a “pacified” slum.
Brazil’s picturesque former capital will welcome some 400,000 of the 600,000 foreign tourists expected to throng the country during the June 12 to July 13 football championship, said tourist office Embratur.
Embratur ranks Rio the world’s third-most expensive city for hotels, after New York and Paris, with average prices of US$247 (RM800) a night.
During the World Cup, hoteliers have ratcheted that up to US$484 — and even higher in the tourist haven of Copacabana, where prices reach US$693, according to a TripAdvisor report published in March.
But the high prices won’t keep visitors away from the city, a perennial tourist favourite with its Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugar Loaf Mountain and its beaches, Rio’s hotel association said.
Rio will have “the highest hotel occupation in the country, at more than 90 per cent and 100 per cent for the final,” predicted association president Alfredo Lopes. — AFP
