RIO DE JANEIRO: The World Cup has been forecast to generate one million jobs in Brazil, according to Vicente Neto, president of the national tourism board, Embratur.

Neto was putting a positive face on the investment in hosting the tournament whose costs prompted several million people to take to the streets in protest during last year’s Confederations Cup and has sparked smaller demonstrations this time around.

He said the “extremely significant number” represented an extraordinary 15pc of the 4.8m jobs created during President Dilma Rousseff’s administration. Rousseff will be standing this autumn for re-election and is favourite to win despite a plummeting popularity rating.

Neto was relying on data from a study commissioned by Embratur from the Economic Research Institute Foundation. It cross-referenced information on the estimated impact to be generated by the World Cup with data from Brazil’s General Register of Employed and Unemployed Citizens collected between January 2011 and March 2014.

Out of the total number of jobs generated by the World Cup, 710,000 were long-term and 200,000 temporary.

Happy hotels

In the tourism sector alone, 50,000 new jobs were generated specifically due to the World Cup.

Neto also claimed that the hotel occupancy rate in the 12 host cities was 45pc higher than expected for the first week of the World Cup.

As of 11 June, tourists had booked 340,000 hotel rooms in the country, 100,000 more than anticipated by the Forum of Brazilian Hotel Operators (FOHB).

The World Cup has been forecast to inject a £15bn into the Brazilian economy, according to a survey conducted by FIPE, again at the requet of Embratur.

Neto said that Brazil was excelling on the world stage as a prominent venue for events.

The country climbed 10 positions in the ranking of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) between 2003 and 2013, jumping from 19th to 9th in the world in number of conferences and conventions hosted.

The total number of events held in Brazil increased from 62 to 315 with the number of cities hosting events increasing from 22 to 54.

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