RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: Brazil plans to expand air traffic and build a bullet train between its two biggest cities in preparation for the 2014 World Cup.

Tourism Minister Marta Suplicy said on Friday the ministry had already begun planning for the Cup, the second to be held in Brazil. The country has won a record five World Cups but hosted just one, in 1950.

“The order for us in tourism is just one: Plan,” she said at a news conference. “The 2014 World Cup is a great opportunity for the country to raise its visibility before the world.”

Efficient preparation also could boost Brazil’s status as a world-class sports venue, she said. Rio de Janeiro successfully staged the Pan American Games last year and aspires to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

A plan for expanding regional air traffic will be submitted to the Defense Ministry, Suplicy said. And the chief of staff of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is working on plans to build a bullet train between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

In 2006, 26 billion people in 240 countries watched the World Cup in Germany, Suplicy said, citing figures from FIFA, soccer’s governing body. The numbers are expected to grow for the 2010 Cup in South Africa.

To prepare for the Cup, Germany invested 10 billion euros (US$15.8 billion) and created 40,000 permanent jobs and drew 24.5 million visitors from 2003 to 2006, she said.

“We’re here to listen to the experiences of specialists, learn how each country prepared, what worked (and) what could have been better,” Suplicy said.

Ricardo Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Soccer Confederation, said Brazil was way ahead of other nations that hosted the World Cup.

“We’re already planning for seven years a lot that wasn’t planned in other countries at this time,” he said. “This is the right way.”