Brazil saw a record number of international tourists in 2016, boosted by the first Olympic Games held in South America, official data showed on Wednesday.
A total 6.6 million international travelers visited Brazil last year, the tourism ministry said, 4.8 percent higher than the year before.
They injected $6.2 billion into the Brazilian economy, compared to $5.84 billion in 2015.
Brazil is the most popular destination in Latin America but lags far behind the world's top 10 popular destinations, according to United Nations figures for 2015. France was the world's most popular tourist destination in the world with 84.5 million visitors in 2015, the United Nations said.
“We still have a lot to do to benefit in an efficient manner from the image legacy of the Olympic Games,” Brazil's Tourism Minister Marx Beltrão said in a statement.
Of those who visited Brazil last year, 95 percent intended to return, according to a tourism ministry survey.
