The European view of Brazil and the exotic dimension of the tourist reality

Abstract

Brazil, over the centuries, has been the subject of a set of narratives used in the country’s representation. These are part of the relations, built during all this time, between Brazil and other peoples. Based on tourist brochures in Portuguese, Spanish, French and German collected in tour operators, Brazil is represented in three geographical spaces: natural/rural, urban/cultural and social/human. Moreover, each of these spaces provides a set of references responsible for the characterization of destinations. Considering the importance of studies on Brazil’s image as well as the relevance of the theme relative to the representation of the "other", established by tourism, this article aims to investigate the representation of Brazil focusing on the textual content of the tourism promotion brochures distributed in Portugal, Spain, France and Germany in the seasons 2012/2013 and 2014/2015.