ForwardKeys has signed a landmark partnership with Emprotur Brazil which will see the state tourism board of Rio Grande do Norte pioneering the course of travel and tourism to and from Natal and the state with the most comprehensive airline data available in the market.

2020 has rocked the boat, grounded planes, and altered the course of the travel sector since the outbreak of the global pandemic in March this year. With meetings and conferences moving online, the importance of digital marketing only grew as has the importance of data mining and forecasting for business intelligence.

“I believe this year will be remembered as the year of innovation and agility as companies were forced to make that leap forward, relying on science and technology to help see the new business opportunities as they flared up each time governments made a new travel rule, or airlines introduced a new flight corridor,” says Olivier Jager, CEO, and Co-Founder of ForwardKeys.

“Considering these highly uncertain times, It is essential to invest in data and intelligence to support the tasks of planning and managing the destination, and, sharing information with our stakeholders, such as public and private decision-makers,” says the Chairman of Emprotur Brazil, Bruno Reis.

“ForwardKeys will provide us with exactly what we need to take the most appropriate actions, finding out how the market is behaving and moving tourism forward aptly in Rio Grande do Norte. Also, now that we have many more meetings and conferences taking place online, the importance of digital marketing has grown, which requires data collection and market forecasts. The future is all about data,” concludes Reis.

ForwardKeys has long been a reliable source of “truth” for clients in the DMO and tourism space, with a network of over 1.4K DMO contacts from Asia, to Africa, Europe, and Latin America, from city tourism boards to national ones. This agreement with Emprotur Brazil is its first venture into Brazil.

With travel reactivation taking place in some countries already, being one of the first to act is pivotal. Already the analysts at ForwardKeys have reported on the reactivation of domestic travel in Russia, China, and Korea, so the big question is: where is Brazil placed?