Brazil’s January Arrivals Exceed Pre-Pandemic Totals

Brazil welcomed 868,587 international travelers in January, exceeding by 100,000 travelers the country’s visitors in both 2019 and 2020, prior to the pandemic, said officials at Brazil’s Agency for the International Promotion of Tourism (Embratur).

Brazil hosted 756,883 international tourists in 2019 and 750,457 in 2020. Brazil’s January 2023 international arrivals represent a 109 percent increase over the same period in 2022, when 414,752 international travelers visited Brazil, said Embratur officials.

More than 1.28 million international visitors will travel to Brazil this summer, with Argentina and the United States being the primary source markets, Embratur officials said in a statement.

“[Brazil] is experiencing a moment of reopening to the world, expecting to attract tourists this year and promote dialogue and international cooperation,” officials added.

Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Curitiba, and Brasília regions are all expected to “experience an increase in visitors,” in 2023.

International travelers spent $604 million in Brazil in January, according to Ministry of Tourism data cited by Embratur. The consumer spending represents an increase of 3.8 percent increase compared with the $582 million spent by Brazil travelers in pre-pandemic January 2020.

The January 2023 spending total also represents a 43.5 percent increase over January 2022.