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Brazil’s plan is to reinstate tourist visa needs for the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada, this will make tourism in those markets and make the country a less competitive destination. Details of the reinstated visa application procedure have not yet been announced.
Last month, the Brazilian government announced that citizens of the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada will be required to have a tourist visa starting Oct. 1. Since 2019, citizens of those countries can stay in the country for up to 90 days with the option of extensions of up to 180 days. Before 2019, tourists had to apply for a visa before traveling.
Tour operators were surprised by the new rule. “Every user running on tourism right now is asking, ‘Why put it now?’said Fernando Rodriguez, CEO of Intrepid Travel Brazil. “If we need to impose this visa requirement at a very bad time, this would be the time. “
2023 turns out to be a good start in Brazil’s post-pandemic tourism recovery. In the first two months, visits totaled 1. 5 million foreign tourists, according to Embratur, Brazil’s tourism board. In 2021, the country received 745,000 foreign visitors, far from its 6. 4 million in 2019.
The visas will hurt Brazil’s competitiveness in the region. Tourists make Brazil a component of a Latin American itinerary of several countries. Visas will make tourists think twice before adding the country. “Most of the time, other people don’t need to apply for a visa for a trip,” Rodriguez said.
This will mean a loss of dollars for tourists and comes at a time when tourists, especially Americans, are spending. Americans spent a record $17. 4 billion on overseas travel in February, according to the U. S. National Travel and Tourism Office. U. S.
One way to breathe life into tourism is to abolish visas, a basic fact of travel. One of the main reasons why the UK, Japan and France are the main source markets for the US is the main source market for the US. The U. S. government, for example, is that they are part of the visa waiver. Program.
Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in January this year, supported the new visa policy. It was followed on the basis of the precept of reciprocity, said Marcelo Freixo, president of Embratur. Currently, the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada continue to require Brazilians to have a visa to make a stopover in their country.
As of June 2019, then-President Jair Bolsanaro exempted the aforementioned countries in hopes that they would return the favor to visas in one form or another, as well as to the tourism industry. Visa waiver is one of the many policies of the Bolsonaro administration. It has sought to accelerate tourism, which included the privatization of airports, airlines and parks.
In 2019, America’s most sensible grocery store is making a difference. U. S. Brazil with 590,000 visits, compared to 538,000 last year, according to Embratur. Canada also grew from more than 40,000 to more than 70,000 during the same period. The United States and Canada sent 132,000 and 8,000 respectively.
It is too early to say to what extent this will reduce foreign tourism from the United States. The style of the visa has not yet been announced, Freixo said. He said he hoped Chile’s visa needs for Australians last year would not be repeated, which proved authoritarian and slowed the decline of that home market.
Poor processing times can obstruct the recovery of foreign tourism in any destination. A Skift megatrend for 2023 is that visa processing delays will delay the recovery of the global tourism economy. An explanation of why the U. S. The pandemic point until 2025 is that new visitors from Brazil, India, Mexico and other primary source markets have to wait more than 400 days on average for a visa interview.
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Tags: brazil, coronavirus recovery, tourism, travel, latin america
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