More attractive destinations and heated tourism market boost interest in Brazil

As Brazilian destinations become more appealing and the tourism market continues to heat up, international tourists now have a much-improved array of choices to get to know great tourist spots in Brazil. In the second half of this year alone, 93 new flights will start connecting airports from overseas to the country.

Brand new routes planned for this year include direct flights to/from São Paulo and Tel Aviv, Dubai, Rome and Lisbon; Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Salvador from/to Panama; Campinas and Paris; and Porto Alegre and Rosario (Argentina), among others. By 2019, there will also be six new direct international flights, three of them between São Paulo and Las Vegas (USA) and three connecting Foz do Iguaçu to Salta (Argentina).

In addition to the 93 new flights, 21 existing international flights will come into operation, including routes between São Paulo and Miami, Campinas and Lisbon, and Rio de Janeiro and Paris, which are expected to get seven, five and three new flights, respectively.

Attractiveness and demand

Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil

According to data from the Brazilian Tourism Board (Embratur), there are more than 5,600 direct flights connecting Brazil to Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and Latin America (Oceania is the only continent for which there are no direct flights to Brazil, due to the long distance).

“Embratur works in all these markets to promote diversified destinations in Brazil and boost demand. The greater the demand, the greater the interest of airlines to open flights to Brazil, not only to consolidated hubs like Guarulhos and Galeão, but to other regions as well," explained the general coordinator of the Tourism Competitiveness and Marketing Intelligence unit at Embratur, Alisson Andrade.

According to him, Embratur promote national destinations abroad during global events in partnership with Brazil's embassies and consulates abroad, working with tour operator associations in these countries and with airlines interested in expanding their operations in Brazil.

Goals

Agência Brasil

The growth in international flights is a fundamental part of the project to expand annual foreign tourist inflows to Brazil. The ambitious goal is to reach 12 million foreign visitors per year by 2022.

In Andrade's assessment, the new routes created, together with other measures implemented by the Brazilian government, will play an essential role achieving growth in the Brazilian tourist market. He believes that the 12-million target, which will almost double the current number of visitors from abroad, is achievable.

“That's the challenge. To achieve it, Embratur seeks to implement successful actions in markets that will work. We have this focus on the result, so we plan quasi-surgical actions, electing those markets in which our investments are likely to generate the most tourists coming to Brazil. We always keep that number in view, and work hard to achieve it," he explained.

Main sources of visitors

Agência Brasil

Of the more than 4.1 million foreigners who came to Brazil by air last year, 2.1 million went to São Paulo. Another state with great circulation of visitors from abroad was Rio de Janeiro (1.3 million). The third place on the list is Bahia, with a total of 153,000 foreign tourists arriving by air last year.

Most of the foreign tourists (1.9 million, or 47.6% of the total) came from South America. For Andrade, the creation of new flights to Brazil will be crucial to change this scenario and to bring an increasing number of visitors from other continents.

“For these long-haul regions in particular, these connections help us a lot, because Brazil, of course, is far from them. Tourists, when making the decision of where to go, will take into account the comfort of the journey, which begins from the moment they board their flights. If there are more direct flights, more comfortable connections, the likelihood that they will choose Brazil is greater," he said.

E-Visas

Marcello Casal Jr./Agência Brasil

Another important measure to attract tourists to Brazil was the creation of the e-Visa programme for citizens of Australia, Canada, USA and Japan, which brought much more agility to the process of issuing the document.

Launched in November 2017, the project markedly increased the number of visas issued to citizens of these four countries. According to the Itamaraty (Brazil's Foreign Ministry), in June 2018 increases reached 14.6% in the issuance of visas for Australians (96.5% issued online), 55.6% for Canadians (87.2% online), 35.7% for US citizens (81.7% online) and 11.5% for Japanese visitors (54% online), all compared to the same month of last year.

Source: Brazilian government, with information from Embratur, the Ministry of Tourism and the Itamaraty.