Travel Metasearch in Brazil
Did you know that there are several options for online travel agencies available in Brazil? In this article we will show you some of the pages visited by Brazilians when they want to go on a trip.
Traveling used to be something that only the wealthiest people could afford. Lately, however, it has become a service available to a big number of people.
In Brazil, due to the rise of class C and the increase in their incomes, traveling is now one of the leisure activities that mostly attract these new consumers. Their share in this market is so significant that some companies make most of their profit from the purchases of the emerging social class.
The online tourism company Viajanet, for example, was created in 2009 and profited over BRL 55 million in that year with tour packages to classes C and D being responsible for most of their profits.
Brazil's Travel Metasearch. "Meta" what?
Metasearch is an engine that provides search results from several different sources. This engine concentrates all these results to provide the best options for trips in terms of prices.
It's a kind of improved Google specialized in the search for flights and hotels for the most varied destinations in Brazil and abroad. These webpages are very common; they find the best prices for trips. Tour packages, hotel and flight bookings available are compared in order to get good accommodations at not so expensive costs.
Decolar.com and Expedia
In Brazil, the most known webpage that seeks good prices in the traveling sector is Decolar.com ("decolar" being the Portuguese for 'to take off'). In the decade of 1990, Roberto Souviron used to test the pros of using Internet to make trips and book hotels. He realized that the services available weren't exactly efficient, and gathered with his classmates to solve this flaw.
They started to plan a new webpage that would solve the problems of the already existing ones. More than that, a webpage that would give the clients the opportunity to search the options themselves, choosing the best alternative to their trips.
Despegar.com (which is the official name of the company) was created in 1999 by five postgraduates of Business Administration at Duke University: Roberto Souviron, Ernesto Cadeiras, Martin Ratellino, Federico Fuchs and Christian Vilate. Decolar.com was established in Brazil two months later.
Despergar.com calls itself as the biggest online travel agency of Latin America and Decolar.com, the biggest of Brazil. One of their main competitors – abroad and, now, in Brazil – is Expedia.
Expedia is the online tourism service of Microsoft. It was created by the Microsoft's Brazilian employee Soraya Bittencourt in a time when Bill Gates wanted his company to have it's own product in the tourism area. Soraya made part of the team of Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink, who are officially the founders of the product. Expedia was the first service in this area developed by a big tech company, making it possible for clients to book flights and hotels plus rent cars in the cities where they were traveling to.
Expedia is the worldwide leader in online sales of tour packages and became available in Brazil through it's own website in October, 2012. Before that, it was possible to reach the company using Hoteis.com and the famous website Trip Advisor.
Top 10 Agencies
According to Tnooz Talking Travel Tech, in December, 2012, Decolar.com ranked the no. 1 position in terms of web traffic to travel agency sites, with 31,34% of the market. Right behind it comes:
- 2 – Submarino Viagens, with 13,25%
- 3 – ViajaNet, 10,49%
- 4 – Mundi Buscador de Viagens, 9,54%
- 5 – CVC, 6%
- 6 – eDestinos.com.br, 5%
- 7 – Rapi10, 3,99%
- 8 – edreamsviagens.com.br, 3,3%
- 9 – Melhores Destinos, 2,14%
- 10 – Ofertastam, 1,75%.
Companies of other sectors investing in tourism
There is a good number of online travel agencies available to Brazilians. Some of them are owned by well-known companies of other sectors, like Submarino, which is a huge online megastore of books, devices, electric and domestic appliances etc, and has the online travel agency Submarino Viagens
Submarino Viagens is in the top 10 online companies, just like Rapi10 Viagens Online, the online travel agency of Copastur. Copastur is a travel agency present in the Brazilian market for almost 40 years.
Saraiva, which is the biggest bookstore chain in Brazil, also owns an online travel agency called Saraiva Viagens (something like Saraiva Trips).
Lojas Americanas (which, despite it's name – free translated as American Stores – is a big Brazilian company), has its travel agency too. Americanas sells eletronic devices, toys, food, clothes, books and is the owner of Blockbuster in Brazil. Americanas Viagens is the online agency of the brand.
Another company that shares the online travel agency business is Shoptime. Shoptime is the biggest virtual store of the Brazilian television system. It was created in 1995, inspired in the American TV channel Home Shopping Network, and sells eletronic and domestic devices, IT products and other goods. The brand's travel agency is Shoptime Viagens.
Other options
If none of the links above suits you, there are still more online agencies to go: