Broadway to Brazilians: Put Theater on Your Shopping List

Broadway just had a record season, thanks in part to the rise of tourists in New York. But Brazilians — the third largest international tourist group after Canadians and the British —are not big theater-goers.

The best place to find some of the almost 1 million Brazilians who visit New York City each year is a department store.

“Brazilians do come to New York to shop, that is the main reason. It's not to see the Statue of Liberty,” said Lucia Guimaraes, a Brazilian columnist who's lived in New York for 30 years.

NYC & Company, the organization that officially promotes tourism for the city, said that last year. About 93 percent of Brazilians said they came here to shop. Guimaraes said that's because goods are overpriced in Brazil. But that's not the only Brazilians don’t go to Broadway —  it can be hard to buy tickets with an international credit card, and there are often language and cultural barriers.

According to the Broadway League,only 2.5 percent of the total Broadway audience last season came from Central or South America.

Charles Flateman, vice president of marketing for The Shubert Organization, which owns and operates 17 Broadway theaters, said he is not discouraged by the statistics.

“We on Broadway go where tourism goes, so Brazil is a key piece of our sales outreach,” he said.

About a year ago, Shubert organized the first of what will be a series of Broadway showcases in Brazil. Actors from "The Lion King," "Chicago," "Kinky Boots," and other shows performed for tour operators and travel agencies.

Hal Luftig, one of the producers of "Kinky Boots," said it's early to know if the event will translate into more ticket sales. “It's not as easy as just going to a conference, then all of a sudden, boom, seeing a line at the box office,” he said. “It's a lot of education, it's a lot of that idea, you know, that Broadway is for me.”

Broadway is just getting started with Brazilians, but its timing couldn't be worse. The economy in Brazil has been contracting for more than a year.

But Flateman said they are not changing their plans. He wants a Broadway ticket to be on the shopping list of any Brazilians who come to New York.

“I just think that instead of going home with five suitcases, maybe they will go home with four suitcases,” he said. “We want one of those suitcases to be filled with Broadway memories, and they don't take up any room at all.”