Mexico: Sharp drop in Brazilian tourists in Cancun due to visa changes

The Mexican Caribbean is reporting losses of more than US$40 million due to the change in the rules of the game regarding visas for Brazilian tourists, according to Jesús Almaguer, president of the Hotel Association of Cancún, Isla Mujeres and Puerto Morelos, and Lilian Zanon, honorary consul of Brazil in Cancún and Riviera Maya.

It is worth remembering that last August 18, the Mexican government made it mandatory for Brazilians to present a physical visa to enter the country; previously, access was allowed with a permit obtained online through the Electronic Authorization System (SAE), only for recreational and non-remunerated activities.

Lilian Zanon, honorary consul of Brazil in Cancun and Riviera Maya, explained that since June, they began to notice constant failures in the SAE page that delayed the obtaining of the format known as digital visa until the problem exploded in August, to the extent that travel agents in Brazil are afraid to offer Cancun due to the uncertainty.

The cascading effects were not long in coming; between cancellations of flight reservations, hotels, and tours already paid for, the estimated losses exceeded US$40 million.

Of the five commercial flights available before August 18, only two are maintained and with low demand.

“We are very concerned about the issue, for example, the treatment given by Migration to Colombians at the Cancun airport and visa restrictions for Brazilians.

“We are not asking them to remove the visa for Brazilians; we are simply asking them to facilitate the process, to implement it again in electronic form, to add the fields they consider necessary; since they made it presential, we immediately lost from five flights to three a week, and that means less income for everyone,” said Almaguer.

With information from Reportur