Understand how motels have become a powerful representative of the economic sector and a particularity of Brazil

You Motels are not an invention of Brazilians. Although these accommodations are part of the urban landscape of most cities in the country, the space emerged in U.S in the mid-1920s as low-cost, practical accommodation for travelers.

With the aim of being a reserved place for sexual relations, Brazilian motels began to appear at the end of the 1960s, in the Rio de Janeiro It is São Pauloand soon spread throughout the country. According to information from the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, it is estimated that there are more than 5 thousand motels in Brazil, receiving around 100 million customers every year and generating around R$4 billion.

Unlike other countries, Brazilian motels operate with two paradoxical aspects: visibility and concealment. The buildings are eye-catching, attractive, with shiny and highly ornate facades. The interior decoration is busy and inventive, the suites are often equipped with mirrors, whirlpools and warm lights.

But despite these explicit references, discretion is an essential part of the motel. Because it is associated with extramarital, adulterous, or deviant and prohibited sex, it is a space that protects privacy and anonymity. Thus, the Brazilian love hotel developed a unique architecture.

According to the D.W., the military dictatorship ended up indirectly financing the construction and consolidation of motels. Based on the interest in promoting the tourism industry, in 1966 the Brazilian Tourism Company (Embratur) and a series of measures to facilitate hotel infrastructure in Brazil, such as tax incentives and low interest rates.

Many businessmen saw in motels the opportunity to surf this wave, and establishments proliferated across the country. In 1975, the attempted femicide of actress Leila Cravo at Vip’s, the most famous and luxurious motel in Rio de Janeiro at the time, caused the military government published a resolution determining that these establishments should be located outside urban centers.

By migrating to non-central areas, motels increased their presence even further. Resilient, motels have recently gone through crises such as AIDS and the Covid-19 pandemic, different economic plans and transformations in customs, and continue to reinvent themselves and multiply across the country. An important factor in propelling the modality was the progressive removal of the requirement marriage certificate for accommodation in hotels in different parts of the country.

Motels around the world

O Japan It is the country with the largest number of accommodations designed for romantic relationships in the world. It is estimated that there are around 30 thousand love hotels, as they are called, in the country. They generally operate on the so-called pleasure streets and not on the highways, and come from their own ancient tradition, linked to tea houses.

The presence of these spaces is also significant in other East Asian countries, such as Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand. At Germany and in much of the Europethis type of hourly accommodation associated with couples’ meetings is practically non-existent.

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Source: Redação Terra