And Brazil's two principal cities, Rio and Saåo Paulo, share an unfortunate reputation for petty street crime directed at tourists. The flight from Miami to Rio - the first destination for most tourists - takes eight hours. True, there are drawbacks to a Brazilian trip. Only about 180,000 Americans a year visit Brazil - a small number for South America's largest and, in many ways, most inviting country. In its effort to draw visitors, the city of Rio has taken steps to increase police patrols along its beaches, to provide trash receptacles on the beaches and to spruce up the city's many parks and squares. Quick, 30-second TV ads broadcast in selected cities carry essentially that same message to the Brazilian public at large. "We say, 'Be kind to foreign tourists because they help make new jobs.' We began with taxi drivers because they have almost the first contact and the last contact with tourists." ![]() "We think it is a creative way to involve people," says Joaåo Do'ria Jr., who just stepped down as president of Embratur, the Brazilian Tourist Authority in Rio. ![]() Though the image is funny, the intent is to provide a daily reminder that tourists are important to the nation's economy. They depict a stereotypical tourist, presumably American, dressed in flowered shirt, plaid shorts and floppy hat with a camera dangling around his neck. In Rio de Janeiro alone, more than 20,000 taxis now have the colorful signs pasted on a side window. "Respeite o Turista," read the signs posted prominently throughout Brazil: "Respect the Tourist." They are perhaps the most obvious evidence that this huge and wonderfully varied country is very serious about attracting a larger number of American travelers - and more U.S.
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