beyondbrics

It’s winter holidays again for high-rolling Brazilians benefiting from the strength of the real. The options are many: London has Big Ben, Paris the Eiffel Tower and New York the Empire State building. However, Miami seems to increasingly be their destination of choice.

Aside from the art-deco architecture of Miami Beach, the area has palm-trees, sun and nice beaches, just like their home country. So why fly all the way up there? In three words: dirt cheap shopping. “I love Miami. In Rio we have Copacabana, but Miami has Banana Republic,” says a cheerful Flávia from Rio de Janeiro, standing at one of the store’s counters at the Lincoln Road Mall.

Recent surveys show that Brazilians are the largest group of foreign shoppers in the Miami area. Some are even coming on organised “shopping tours.” Last year Miami welcomed more than 550,000 Brazilians who pumped a total of $1.14bn into the local economy.

“We have always had Brazilians here, but in the past year or so, they come here to do shopping, shopping and more shopping,’’ explains Claudia Menezes, vice president of Pegasus, a bus company that offers shopping tours. “So every time we take them back to the airport for them to fly back home, we need to get extra vans or buses and even trucks to carry everything they shopped.”

That Brazilians are flocking to the city’s high-streets, luxury shopping malls and outlet stores should come as no surprise. The commodity boom of the past decade has propelled some 33m Brazilians into the middle or upper classes since 2003. And with the real at a 12-year high against the dollar, shopping in the US has never been more tempting (or lighter on the wallet).

“Brazilians are Miami’s star visitors, they are breaking records, and they continue to grow,” William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Visitors Bureau tells beyondbrics. “In terms of expenditure they are at the top, this means a lot of jobs for an economy that is still recovering from the economic crisis.” His organization is currently lobbying the US government to give Brazilians visa waivers. “If that is granted, the number of visitors will jump to one million overnight and revenues will also,” Talbert adds.

Back in the 1990s an apparent economic stability based on strong currencies and low inflation in several Latin American countries brought hordes of Argentines, Brazilians, Colombians and Venezuelans to take on the commercial streets and shopping malls of the Miami area with the mantra “deme dos” (give me two). But subsequent economic collapses and devaluations around the region made it impossible for them stay on track with a Miami tradition some called “Marmall” – “mar” or sea in the mornings, mall at nights.

But now Brazilians are back in hordes, having surpassed all their neighbours. Among those to benefit is the aviation industry. Direct flights from Brazil to Miami now stand at 115 a week, with American Airlines and Brazil’s TAM flying not only from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro but also from Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Manaus, Recife and Salvador.

So, for the moment, with their new found prosperity underpinned by strong fundamentals it seems Brazilians will keep coming north to spend. “Excuse me,” Flávia, the shopper says, “but I have to rush across the street before the Gap store closes.”

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