- The arrival of foreigners in Brazil fell by 75%, to 1.5 million passengers;
- In Brazil, the demand for flights was reduced by more than 90% between April and May.
Operators of the Brazilian Association of Tour Operators (BRAZTOA) had revenues of BRL 4 billion in 2020, compared to BRL 15.1 billion in 2019, the data were released in the association’s Yearbook 2021.
In terms of world tourism, the loss was 99% of the estimate for 2020, according to Roberto Nedelciu, President of Braztoa. “It was supposed to be BRL 1.7 trillion and we had BRL 1.1 billion in international tourism revenue,” he said. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted tourism worldwide, and reduced international tourist arrivals around the world by 74%. In America alone, the drop was 69%, according to the yearbook.
As the international travel of Brazilian plummeted, with BRL 900 million revenue, there was a decrease of 85% compared to 2019. There were altogether 143,000 boarding passengers to international destinations, down 91% compared to last year.
Nedelciu points out that the exchange rate had an increase of 30.69% in one year, which made international travel more expensive for Brazilians. The arrival of foreigners in Brazil fell by 75%, to 1.5 million passengers.
In Brazil, the demand for flights was reduced by more than 90% between April and May, and the hotel industry fell by more than 80% between April and June, with layoffs of 2.7 million people in the tourism sector between August and September.
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The figures for the fall in Brazilian tourism
In 2019, airlines had revenues of BRL 9 billion for domestic flights and BRL 6.10 billion for international flights. This year, revenues were BRL 3.09 billion for domestic shipments and BRL 900 million for international shipments.
The national average ticket in 2019 was BRL 1,520.77, and the international BRL 3,520.28. In 2020, it had a national average ticket of BRL 978.87 and international average ticket of BRL 6,330.36.
According to Nedelciu, last year, purchases were made for smaller trips, within Brazil, and mostly, road trips. The most used payment method for these trips in 2020 was through cards or boleto – Brazilian payments cash voucher (97%). “Trips that had a lower average ticket were usually paid for with a minimum quota of installments on the card or financing by tour operators that used ticket slips.”
Domestic travel had a 65.61% reduction in revenue compared to 2019 and the main destinations were Salvador, Maceió, Natal, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. According to the association’s president, Brazilian tourism “came out ahead of other countries that depend almost exclusively on international tourists”.
Will the tourism situation get better?
Neldeciu believes that for tour operators to return to 2019 revenue it will take 1.5 to 2 years. “It is difficult to make predictions, we thought that the pandemic would last three months, at first. The situation started to improve in September, October, November, when some operators sold even more than in the previous year, and in November the country was hit by a second wave, with declines in tourism in December, January, February and March. Tourism is a chain. We depend on the demands of flights, the occupation of hotels. This second wave caught us, we are in contact with government aid measures.”
