Sandals Royal Bahamian welcomed the first ever vacationers from the newly-established Copa Airlines direct flight from Panama this past week -- a couple from Brazil who will leave The Bahamas on Thursday with a glowing review of not only the resort, but our country as well. Robson and Michelle Lima, a newly-married couple from the Brazilian city of São Paulo, chose to spend a week in New Providence for their honeymoon. Through Sandals Royal Bahamian's resident Portuguese speaker, Food and Beverage Manager Manuel Santos, Mr. Lima explained that the decision was made after a random search on the Internet. "For our honeymoon we wanted to spend time at a beautiful beach so we googled the words 'paradise' and 'beach'.  The first pictures to come up were ones from The Bahamas.  So then it was just a matter of what resort to go to and we chose Sandals," Mr. Lima said. The availability of a direct flight from a South American country assisted further in making the decision an easy one.  The couple said that the flight was very good, comfortable and safe. Mr. Lima raved about the warm Bahamian weather, saying they stepped off of their Copa Airlines flight dressed in winter coats and boots.  Because it is below the Equator, winters in São Paulo run from 22nd June - 21st September. The Limas even made a day trip to the Exumas on the Power Boat Adventures. "The weather is beautiful, the country is beautiful, the people are beautiful we would recommend it to anyone back home," Mr. Lima said. Good word of mouth in São Paulo could go a long way.  Not only is it the largest city in Brazil, São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere, and the world's seventh largest city by population. As a matter of fact, recommendations from persons traveling from any of the markets in South America are significant.  Not only is it a fairly untapped region as far as the Bahamian tourism industry is concerned, it is the home of a number of emerging economies. In the past five years, South America has experienced great economic development, with Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru growing their economies by over 8 percent per annum. Brazil, the nation from where the Limas hail, is the seventh largest economy in the world and the second largest in the Americas.  It leads South America in total amount of exports at $137.8 billion dollars. Sandals General Manager Patrick Drake once again highlighted the great opportunity the opening of these markets provides for The Bahamas. "While continuing to provide excellent service to our North American guests we must not forget the special needs of visitors to The Bahamas from South America and Europe who are traveling great distances to be here," Drake said.

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