Rio expects 3 mln tourists for New Year's at Copacabana

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Rio de Janeiro predicts that three million visitors will attend the New Year festivities at the famed Copacabana beach, the Brazilian city said on Wednesday.

Rio traditionally hosts the most spectacular New Year events in Brazil. This year, there will be eight stages spread over the city's beaches to present all sorts of music concerts. The fireworks show is expected to last 17 minutes, or five minutes more than the year before.

"We believe that there will be three million people," Marcelo Alves, the head of the municipal tourism agency Riotur, said at a news conference.

New Year's fireworks seen from Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach on January 1, 2017. /AFP Photo

The city council said that a total of 1,032 municipal police have been mobilized for the celebrations, and the Rio state government earlier announced that leave for 2,000 military police had been canceled to reinforce security for end-of-the-year celebrations.

Despite violence and financial problems plaguing the city, Riotur expects to receive 2.7 million tourists for New Year's, which would inject some 2 billion reals (around 600 million US dollars) into the economy.

Source(s): AFP ,Xinhua News Agency