Spending by foreign tourists in Brazil rises 84% from January to July

Spending by foreign tourists in Brazil from January to July this year amounted to more than US$2.7 billion (about R$14.5 billion at today’s exchange rate), 84% higher than the amount recorded in the same period last year (US$1.5 billion).

The information was published by the Ministry of Tourism, based on data from the Central Bank.

In July this year alone, US$389 million was received, 74% more than in July 2021 (US$ 223 million).

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the data indicate a substantial recovery of the sector, which suffered greatly from the Covid 19 pandemic, from the second half of 2020.

The Tourism Ministry expects 4.2 million foreign tourists to visit Brazil by the end of the year.

In an interview with the program A Voz do Brasil, Minister Carlos Brito said that the resumption of international flights and the work of Embratur, the Brazilian agency promoting the country abroad, should favor the arrival of foreign tourists.

“The resumption of international flights will boost our economy because with the work we did before the pandemic, we could have surpassed the 7 million foreign tourists coming to our country. ”

“But we were caught off guard by the pandemic. We hope to have more than 4 million foreign tourists in our country by the end of the year. This will increasingly strengthen the economy,” said the minister.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Brazil was recorded in 2018 when 6.62 million arrived in the country.

In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, there were 6.35 million.

In 2020, social isolation measures in Brazil and around the world severely affected international tourism starting in March.

That year, 1.8 million foreign tourists visited the country.

In 2021, that number dropped to less than 600,000.

This year, foreign tourists again surpassed the 1 million mark in the year’s first half.

“It is essential that foreigners come to our country. Of the foreigners who come to our country, about 93% want to come back, and 95% are enthusiastic about our gastronomy.”

“We need to attract foreign tourists to our country because we have everything they are looking for, or much more than they can imagine,” Brito said.