Spending by foreign tourists in the country totaled more than US$ 2.7 billion (about R$ 14.5 billion at today’s exchange rate) from January to July this year, an amount 84% higher than that recorded in the same period of the year. past (US$ 1.5 billion). The information was released today (26) by the Ministry of Tourism, based on data from the Central Bank.
In July of this year alone, it was US$ 389 million, 74% more than in July 2021 (US$ 223 million). According to the Ministry of Tourism, the data point to the strong resumption of the sector, which has suffered greatly from the covid-19 pandemic, from the second quarter of 2020.
The Ministry of Tourism expects that, by the end of the year, 4.2 million foreign tourists will visit Brazil. In an interview with the program The Voice of BrazilMinister Carlos Brito said that the resumption of international flights and the work of Embratur, the Brazilian promotion agency for the country abroad, should favor the arrival of foreign tourists.
“The resumption of international flights will now heat up our economy, because with our work, which was being carried out in the pre-pandemic, we would exceed the 7 million foreign tourists who came to our country. But we were surprised by the pandemic. Now we hope to reach the end of the year with more than 4 million foreign tourists here in our country. In this way, strengthening the economy more and more”, said the minister.
The record of foreign tourists in the country who visited Brazil was recorded in 2018, when 6.62 million came to the country. In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, there were 6.35 million. In 2020, social isolation measures in Brazil and in the world caused a big blow to international tourism, starting in March. That year, there were 1.8 million foreign tourists in the country. By 2021, that number had dropped to less than 600,000.
This year, foreign tourists once again surpassed 1 million in the first half of the year. “It is very important that foreigners come to our country. Of the foreigners who come to our country, around 93% want to come back and 95% approve of our gastronomy. We have to bring foreign tourists to our country, because we have everything they are looking for or much more than they imagine”, said Brito.
