A football match is not limited to kick-off. Around the stadium, there is the anticipation, the colors, the bars filled before the game, the conversations that continue after the final whistle. It is this football culture, as urban as it is sporting, that Visit Brasil is highlighting with its international campaign “Come join this feeling”, launched in the context of the 2026 World Cup.
The initiative is already looking ahead to 2027. From June 24 to July 25, Brazil will host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in eight cities: Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo.
A sporting event, a tourism lever
Visit Brasil is not only presenting the country as a land of football. The campaign, available in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, seeks to connect the sporting event with a broader travel experience: discovering a city on match days, understanding the role of clubs in local culture, and extending a stay beyond the competition calendar.
This approach is part of Plan Brasis, Embratur’s 2025-2027 international tourism marketing plan, built around innovation, diversity and sustainability. Football has an obvious place in it, but it is not treated as a simple promotional backdrop. It becomes an entry point into destinations, their neighborhoods, their habits and their places of memory.
The 2027 calendar also offers a rare opportunity to present several facets of the country. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador da Bahia, Recife and Porto Alegre do not share the same football history, nor the same way of welcoming supporters. For tourism, this diversity makes it possible to build stays that are not based solely on matches, but on the personality of each host city.
The Football Route gives shape to the journey
Alongside the campaign, Embratur-Visit Brasil has launched the Football Route, a digital platform dedicated to experiences linked to the country’s most popular sport. The site offers four itineraries around Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, organized around match day, club history, major stadiums and local classics.
The value of this platform lies in its ability to connect places that are often approached separately: stadiums, museums, club headquarters, supporters’ bars and neighborhoods shaped by sporting rivalries. Football thus becomes a thread for the visit, capable of giving meaning to a day, an urban route or a stop within a longer stay.
This logic also echoes the Mercosur Football Stadium Route, developed under the Visit South America brand. The project brings together several South American countries around stadiums, museums and emblematic places, with the aim of making football a regional travel theme, beyond the simple visit to sports venues.
Our article: The Mercosur Stadium Route: when football becomes a journey
A favorable tourism dynamic
The launch comes in a favorable context. After a record year in 2025 (+37.1% international visitors), the country welcomed 3.74 million travelers in the first quarter of 2026. International tourism revenue reached $3.2 billion (+11.8%) over the same period, while the month of March surpassed one million arrivals.
These results give weight to Visit Brasil’s strategy. The campaign is not based on a simple promise: it builds on demand that is already rising and on two years in which football will occupy a central place on the international agenda.
One year before the first Women’s World Cup organized in Latin America, Brazil is already positioning football as an invitation to travel. The campaign, the Football Route and the 2027 calendar point in the same direction: to make this World Cup a major sporting, cultural and tourism celebration, reflecting a country where football is lived as much in cities as in stadiums.
Photos: Embratur
