Football’s World Cup is one of these special occasions.

The 2014 tournament, held

throughout Brazil in 12 stadiums in 12 cities, attracted almost 3.5 million spectators
.over the course of the tournament. Of that, over a million were international visitors

Without the vital air links provided, this simply would not be possible. During the
event, Brazil experienced 16.7 million passenger movements, which was an 11.2%
.increase from the same time frame the previous year

In terms of air transport investment, the arrival of the World Cup allowed Brazil to
invest heavily in its aviation infrastructure, with a total of $3.92 billion put forward by
the government, resulting in a 52% increase in capacity that will serve Brazil well in
.years to come

Having so many visitors fly in for such a major global event, of course, means a big
boost for the local economy The tourism sector alone was created to be around USD
3 billion, generated by the 3.7 million domestic and foreign tourists during the event ,
the World Cup created close to 1 million jobs, of which 710,000 were permanent jobs
and 200,000 temporary. Of this total amount, approximately 50,000 workers entered
the tourism sector directly

The Brazilian government claims that there were USD 7.3 million invested in
Pronatec Tourism, a governmental program that trained more than 160,000 Brazilian
nationals to receive domestic and foreign tourists , However, investing in educational
programs and infra-structure was not enough to please the Brazilians. Riots and
strikes occurred around the country prior and during the World Cup. Many ended up
in violence and confrontations with the police, resulting in injured participants and
reporters. Protesters complained about the corruption and government expenditure
with the World Cup. Their main criticism was the contrast between the spending in
the mega-event compared to health and education. In 2013, Brazil spent USD 34
billion in education and USD 36 billion in health. Both together comprise 8.6% of the
total government expenditure in 2013. Expenses in health and education increased in
2014, but only represented 8.4% of the total expenditure

Although the health and education spending were higher than the expenses with the
World Cup, Brazilians realized that the opportunity cost was big. The country still
needs basic investments on education and health before being able to afford soccer
infrastructure