For those who think the rate for a room in Rio de Janeiro’s hotels during the FIFA World Cup seems a tad expensive, there are always alternatives, such as a room in a “love hotel” or a “pacified” slum.
Brazil’s picturesque former capital will welcome about 400,000 of the 600,000 tourists expected to throng the country during the June 12 to July 13 championship, said Embratur, Brazil’s tourism board. Embratur ranks Rio as the world’s third-most expensive city for hotels after New York and Paris, with average room prices at US$247 a night.
During the World Cup, hoteliers have ratcheted that up to US$484 and prices are even higher in the tourist haven of Copacabana, where they reach US$693, a Trip Advisor report said in March.
Photo: AFP
Yet the high prices will not keep visitors away from the city, a perennial tourist favorite, Rio’s hotel association said.
The city will have “the highest hotel occupation in the country, at more than 90 percent and 100 percent for the final,” association president Alfredo Lopes predicted.
Brazil has invested US$4 billion in hotel infrastructure nationwide, US$1.5 billion of which is for 250 new hotels in Rio.
“In 2010, we had 29,000 rooms and there will be 6,800 new ones for the World Cup. In 2016, for the Olympic Games, there will be another 13,000 or 50,000 in total,” Lopes said.
Bolstering that number are 12 of the city’s 60 love hotels, which are usually rented by the hour to amorous couples, but have been “reconverted” so they can be added to the World Cup mix.
“The ceiling mirrors have been taken down and the round beds swapped for traditional ones,” Lopes said.
Yet at least one love hotel is cashing in on adventurous tourists who want the rooms as they are.
“Our 87 rooms have already been reserved, even our thematic suites: sadomasochistic, Hollywood, Versailles and the Japanese one. They’ve not been remodeled as they are very much in demand,” said Antonio Cerqueira, who owns the Villa Reggia.
Cerqueira’s sadomasochistic room boasts black walls, a leather-covered round bed and chains dangling from a high ceiling.
Cerqueira, who is also vice president of the Association of Love Hotels, said 1,000 rooms will be available for World Cup fans for US$100 to US$375 a night; cheaper than many traditional hotels.
Although Rio’s favelas are infamously bastions of gang violence and drug trafficking, the past six years have seen police move in to “pacify” an rising number of slums.
Coinciding with that has been a growth in small hostels in the earliest “pacified” favelas — the ones overlooking Copacabana Beach.
These hostels are a draw for backpackers and offer a spectacular view, though many can only be reached via perilous climbs.
Cristiane de Oliveira, 42, opened the Favela Inn at Chapeu Mangueira favela in 2010. She offers three rooms with bunk bed, bathroom and Wi-Fi for US$20 a night per person in the low season and US$25 in the high season.
“During the World Cup, it will be US$45,” she said.
De Oliveira said there has been a “fall-off in tourists” since November last year, when drug traffickers started to attack the police pacification units in the favelas.
“The media only reflects the violent image of the favelas and never shows the good side: samba, joy, people helping one another,” she lamented.
Pablo Gomes, 35, last year opened the Green Culture Hostel, which can house 25 guests.
“During the World Cup, it will cost between US$54 and US$63 per day — the same price as during Carnival,” he said.
“Here, everyone knows one another. There are many good little restaurants and bars; it’s really friendly and we are close to nature,” said one satisfied customer, Myriam Glare, adding that visitors feel “completely safe.”
A third option is renting an apartment or room from locals.
“The average cost is US$112 to US$135 per person, compared with US$538 in a four-star hotel,” said Fabio Nahon, who will make US$25,000 for renting his apartment.
Brasilia vows it has an eye on price gouging, “otherwise, we’ll kill the golden goose for decades,” Embratur president Flavio Dino said last year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day