RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Switzerland reopens its borders to vaccinated Brazilians from this Saturday, June 26. The Chinese vaccine Coronavac, the most used in Brazil – because it is produced at the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo, in partnership with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac – is accepted in Switzerland, unlike the Russian Sputnik. Brazilians will also no longer need to be subjected to quarantine when they arrive in the country.
All this is good news for Brazilians who can now travel to Switzerland, one of the richest and most expensive countries in the world. The Swiss federal government’s decision was also celebrated by Swiss tourism authorities, as Brazilians are particularly appreciated – they are among those who spend the most on their stay in the country.
“Brazilian tourists are important for Swiss tourism because they spend 240 francs (R$1,300) per day, much more than Swiss or European tourists,” said André Aschwanden, spokesman for the Swiss Tourism Office. By comparison, Nordic tourists spend 200 Swiss francs a day. Chinese spend 300 francs. The average daily expenditure of a foreign tourist in the country is 160 Swiss francs.
In 2019, before the pandemic, Switzerland recorded 249,000 overnight stays by Brazilian tourists. This was an increase of 2.7% compared to the previous year.
Now, information coming from Swiss tourism representatives in São Paulo is that Brazilian tourists are counting the days to visit the country again. Aschwanden says this is good news but acknowledges there is still a lot of uncertainty globally about the health crisis and the movement of resuming visits will be gradual.
The Swiss authorities have decided that vaccinated or recovered people can enter Switzerland from a country with a variant of concern, with no testing or quarantine requirement. In other words, the quarantine obligation is lifted for those coming from a country with variants against which vaccination is effective.
Specifically, vaccinated tourists do not need to test negative against Covid-19, even if they come from a country where the Delta variant is predominant, such as India and the UK.
For vaccinated Brazil residents, Switzerland is good news, unlike neighboring France, which keeps Brazil on the red list.
In general, it will remain difficult for Brazilians to travel to a goodly number of countries, because of the persistently rising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
Source: Valor