João Pessoa coastline – Photo: Walla Santos/ClickPB

Source: Redação Paraíba Já  – March 16, 2025, at 11:35 AM

National publication highlights the capital of Paraíba as a hub for economic and tourism growth, attracting companies, investors, and people in search of new opportunities

For decades, João Pessoa was seen as the “ugly duckling” of the northeastern coastline, overshadowed by destinations like Recife and Fortaleza. However, today, the capital of Paraíba presents a renewed image, emerging as a hub of economic and tourism growth attracting companies, investors, and people in search of new opportunities. This transformation is highlighted on the cover of O Globo newspaper, revealing how the city is becoming one of the main development focuses in the Northeast.

The city combines a solid infrastructure, affordable cost of living, and a privileged geography – being the easternmost point of the Americas, with warm beaches that charm tourists in search of authentic experiences. However, the accelerated growth has started to change the landscape and daily life, with more traffic, rising violence, and more expensive real estate.

Read the full report by O Globo on João Pessoa

For a long time, João Pessoa was considered the ugly duckling of the northeastern coastline. Now, the capital of Paraíba presents a renewed plumage as an economic growth hub, attracting companies and people in search of new opportunities.

The booming tourism attracts ambitious ventures in the sector, stimulating other investments, such as in real estate and other regions of the state. The Banco do Brasil estimated a 6.9% GDP growth for Paraíba last year, well above the national average of 3.4% reported by IBGE.

In addition to business, the city increasingly attracts people as an alternative to more expensive metropolises. According to the 2022 Census from IBGE, João Pessoa was the city that grew the most in population among the 20 largest cities in the country: 15.26% in just over a decade.

Good infrastructure and privileged geography

The capital has always combined good infrastructure, low cost of living, and the privileged geography of Brazil’s easternmost point, with its warm beaches that quickly become popular with tourists in search of more rustic experiences. However, the accelerated growth is already changing the landscape and daily life, with more traffic, violence, and higher real estate prices.

The Tauá Hotels and Resorts Group is one of the companies investing in the Cabo Branco Tourist Hub, a government project in Paraíba that uses tax incentives to make what is expected to be the largest tourism complex in the Northeast, focused on leisure and business.

The proximity to the international airports of Recife (PE) and Natal (RN) and good highways were important in choosing Cabo Branco, which already has a convention center, according to the CEO of Tauá Group, Lizete Ribeiro:

— I’m not aware of any other convention center with such beauty and infrastructure. It was ready and had no hotel around. Two years ago, no one was talking about João Pessoa, but now I see a lot of interest from companies. It’s a city that wants business to happen.

Resorts to be inaugurated

The Tauá resort opens in March 2026 with 500 rooms and plans to double its capacity by 2027. The venture is expected to generate 1,000 direct jobs by 2028, with an investment of R$ 650 million.

— We want everything in one place. We will have a city for children, an indoor water park, restaurants, several outdoor pools, leisure areas, tennis courts. It will be our most complete venture — says the executive.

With an investment of nearly R$ 500 million, WAM Experience is also developing a tourism complex in the hub, including a hotel with 480 rooms, an Open Mall Outlet shopping center, a Ferris wheel, event spaces, trails, and a theme park. The initiative is expected to generate more than 1,600 direct jobs and 2,500 indirect jobs during construction.

Last week, representatives of the Paraíba Development Company (Cinep) and the state governor, João Azevedo (PSB), presented the Cabo Branco hub to investors at an event in Portugal. According to Cinep, hotel projects total R$ 2.5 billion, with 13,000 beds in total. The state is responsible for infrastructure.

— The state has investment capacity. We launched another investment package of R$ 11.5 billion, of which R$ 9 billion are from our own resources, and this makes the economy move — says the governor.

More flights

With the expected growth of tourism and business, airlines are increasing flights to João Pessoa’s airport.

Latam, which operated 8 to 20 weekly flights to the city from Brasília or Guarulhos in 2023, has increased the average to 11 to 21 frequencies.

Azul, which makes more than 200 monthly trips to the capital of Paraíba, plans to increase the number of flights to open 3,000 new seats for the city, increasing connections to nine other airports, including Congonhas in São Paulo, said Vitor Silva, General Manager of Network, Planning, and Alliances at Azul:

— João Pessoa is already one of the main tourist destinations in the Northeast.

Beaches, resorts, and… data centers

Another type of project in the region is by Hostdime, which has been operating a 3-megawatt data center there since 2017. Now, with the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processing, the company will begin constructing a new unit in January 2026, costing R$ 250 million, and it will operate in 2027 with up to 15 megawatts.

According to Hostdime’s CEO, Filipe Mendes, the region has attracted the attention of international companies due to its absence from climate impact zones and its potential for clean and inexpensive energy generation:

— The Northeast, in particular, has mostly arid land with lower value. It is possible to build data centers on cheaper land and still use energy from renewable sources.

Largest solar energy complex in Latin America
Rio Alto Renováveis has been operating a solar plant in the interior of Paraíba since 2017 and is now building the largest solar energy complex in Latin America, which has already received R$ 1.4 billion and is close to completing its first phase.

Rafael Brandão, the company’s financial director and partner, says that the demand for data centers in the region has been increasing, including those consuming significant amounts of energy for cryptocurrency mining.

Clean energy companies expect higher demand with the growth of the Cabo Branco hub. This includes the Ecoparque João Pessoa, a center for biogas production from waste, which has an installed capacity of 5.7 MW and supplies about 21,000 households with energy from processing 60,000 tons of solid waste.

— We are planning new investments, especially in the production of biomethane and waste-derived fuels, as well as in the sorting of recyclables — says Milton Pilão, CEO of Orizon Waste Valorization, which manages the ecopark.

More expensive real estate

With more job opportunities, João Pessoa attracts more residents and heats up the real estate market. The many available plots of land are quickly being replaced by skyscrapers. However, the supply is still lower than the demand.

According to the FipeZAP Index, property prices increased by 15.54% in 2024 alone, the third-highest rate among the capitals.

— The rise in property prices is startling. An apartment that cost R$ 180,000 in 2020 now costs more than R$ 500,000. The basic urban infrastructure, especially sewage, drainage, and road networks, no longer has the capacity — says Andréa Porto Sales, professor at the Department of Geosciences at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) and researcher at the Observatory of Metropolises.

According to her, João Pessoa fits the profile of cities that combine government incentives, quality of life, and a promising consumer market, which is why it attracts so many investments.

She highlights that the slow process of occupying “free land” contributed to maintaining the quality of life, which attracted many people and now is changing this reality.

At the same time that it became more expensive, the stock of real estate became more complete in João Pessoa, says Cida Medeiros, CEO of Grupo Delta. The construction company delivered 498 units in the city in 2023, 970 last year, and is expected to finish 1,350 this year.

In 2025, the company saw a new niche and started investing in middle-class properties, which was not very common in the capital, according to the executive:

— The city has started to have a middle-class volume. In the past, you would sell a tower with apartments, a party hall, and a pool. Now, all properties, from affordable to high-end, need to have leisure areas with landscaping. Automation is also important, from the sound system in the leisure area to the lighting control at the gatehouse.

‘Boom’ in 2024

In 2021, the 53-year-old Rio de Janeiro native Cleide Jeane came to spend a few months in João Pessoa but ended up staying a year. She always wanted to live in the city due to her Paraíba roots and, after years of trying to convince her husband, she moved permanently from Rio to the capital of Paraíba in 2022.

For her, the growing interest in the city is linked to the aging population, which seeks a more peaceful life.

— It’s a big city that feels peaceful. That’s what’s attracting people — she sums up.

However, Cleide says she has noticed more intense changes since last year. She views the emergence of small businesses with more residents and tourists positively, but she evaluates that prices in supermarkets have increased. She also notices that public services are not keeping up with the growth:

— There was a boom in the city at the beginning of 2024. I see more buildings being constructed, rising prices for houses and apartments. The UPAs (health units) are also crowded. The reports didn’t talk much about violence before, but now they talk a lot more.

Data from the Ministry of Justice show a 3% increase in car thefts between 2019 and 2024 in the state, for example, while the number of intentional homicides increased by 14.7% in the capital alone.

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