As tempting as the Brazilian market was in the late 1990s, the country’s economy was weak, and the tourist trade in its infancy. With so much still to be done, the Pestana Rio Atlântica managed to make a huge impression.
The Pestana Rio Atlântica hotel is located on Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic avenue and was inaugurated at the turn of the millennium, a time when Brazilians were full of hope after years of hyperinflation. It was a Portuguese hotel in Brazil, and things had to be just right. The hotel needed to get people’s attention and came up with the idea of staging a culinary event during Carnival 2000. Nowadays, the Rio Atlântica’s Bacalhau do Pestana (cod) rivals the star-studded Feijoada do Amaral (bean stew).
On the Copacabana terrace, overlooking Sugarloaf Mountain, this was just one of many resounding successes. The tourist boom had yet to occur, but the charming Rio Atlântica building was perfect for the event, having been previously occupied by the mythical Cinema Rian, a place where the city’s aristocracy had once danced to the sound of their first Elvis film.
Five years after opening the Rio Atlântica, Pestana already had another seven hotels in the country. Today, the Group can also be found in business destinations (e.g., Pestana Curitiba and Pestana São Paulo). Meanwhile, Pestana has won over the locals with salted cod, and charmed Brazil with Portuguese hospitality.
