Salvador: a Host City for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

30 Nov, 2013

Read in English abaixo | Leia em Português aqui

By Wellington Medeiros de Sousa
Translation by Harriet Batey
Serie ‘Host cities’ 

Known for its natural beauty and welcoming people, Salvador is one of the main tourist cities of Brazil. State capital of Bahia, it is known for its calm, warm and crystal-clear waters and famous for its Carnaval with celebrations on both the beaches and streets, as well as in the historic area (Pelourinho).

Salvador, the original capital city of Brazil, was founded in 1549 on the edge of the Bay of Todos os Santos. Its metropolitan region known as Greater Salvador, has more than 3.5million inhabitants, making it the most populated North Eastern city and the fifth biggest of Brazil.

The city boasts numerous “picture postcard” areas such as Pelourinho, Farol da Barra and the Church of Bonfim, beautiful beaches, as well as diverse cultural and gastronomic attractions. There is also a rich environment for visitors, such as the tourist routes of Dendê e do Descobrimento, Chapada Diamantina and the lakes of the São Francisco River.
Religion also plays an important role in the daily lives of residents and visitors. Salvador is known as a city of 365 churches, one for each day of the year, and is an example of religious syncretism, marked by the mixture of Catholicism and the African beliefs coming from slavery, such as Candomblé.

Salvador’s Stadiums

Salvador has three stadiums: Otávio Mangabeira, known as Fonte Nova (which will host games of the championship); Manual Barradas, known as Barradão; and Roberto Santos in Pituaçu, in the middle of an ecological reserve.
The Bahian Government remodeled the Fonte Nova Stadium with public and private investments and the cost of the works came to around R$591.7million. The arena has a multi-use structure and is prepared to receive concerts and other cultural events as well as football games, in order to make financial returns and enable its maintenance. Currently the stadium is already in use and has a capacity of 50,000.

Potential for Tourism

Salvador is one of the most popular cities for visitors to host the World Cup in 2014, due to its touristic and sporting potential. However, there is a lot of work ahead to comply with FIFA requirements. The city still faces huge problems, such as urban mobility and violence.
The event could be an opportunity to develop the city. It is necessary to revitalize the historic centre and the area around the new stadium, refresh the hotel and waterfront infrastructure, reduce security problems and address the lack of manpower in the tourism market. Everything depends on formulating and developing efficient strategies to ensure a continued and increasing influx from international tourism, allowing for business and employment security.

Hospitality Infrastructure

The Fonte Nova Stadium is very close to the port, allowing fans to stay on boats. There are negative reactions to this in the hotel sector, which is pushing for the use of its own establishments. Furthermore, during the months of June and July when the championship is taking place, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, however it is a low season time in Brazil and generally, the boats operate in the Mediterranean.

Challenges and Opportunities

The biggest challenge for Salvador with the World Cup 2014 is to balance the sustainability of the new stadium project with the vast social inequality in the city. The Metropolitan Region of Salvador has one of the largest levels of social inequality in the country with some HDI scores of 0.971 and other 0.652. Salvador needs an impressive stadium, as planned with the renovation of Fonte Nova, but faces a contradiction over ticket prices. For the new arena to be economically viable it is necessary that prices for match tickets are R$30, which is impractical for the majority of the city’s residents.
Another challenge is that of urban mobility. Bottlenecks in the road system cause the main avenues to become “reservoirs of slow moving vehicles”, with vast traffic jams at peak times. There needs to be huge investment in both the medium and high level transport systems, of which studies have been made but still lack concrete plans.