In March this year, the tourism flow in Brazil continued to approach the pre-pandemic level. The sector’s turnover reached R$15.4 billion, a rise of 43.5% compared to the same month in 2021. It is the highest growth since July 2021. The data was published by the Tourism Council of the Federation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism of the State of São Paulo (FecomercioSP).
The growth of Brazilian tourism sector turnover was mainly fueled by transportation, the air transport in particular, which earned R$4.4 billion in March - an increase of 113.5% in a year. The result also reflected greater demand for accommodation and food services, which grew by 57.7% (R$ 4.4 billion). Cultural, recreational, and sporting activities grew by 33.2% to R$1.2 billion.
Carlos Brito, the Minister of Tourism, celebrated the positive figures. “From the very first moment, President Bolsonaro’s government devised measures to support the Brazilian tourism sector. These were decisive in preventing the pandemic from having even worse consequences and allowed tourism activities to recover. This is now evident in the constant and positive economic flow of the sector, the flow of passengers in airports and bus stations, the hotel chain occupation and, above all, the return of major events that generate employment and income in the country,” he stated.
March’s positive result was also aided by the segments of car rental, tourist agencies, operators and other tourism services, which grew 4.5%, with profits of R$ 2.5 billion. The ground transportation segment billed R$2.7 billion - a growth of 11.1% - and surpassed the March 2019 figure by 9.3%.
The FecomércioSP study attributed the positive results of the Brazilian tourism sector in March to the last days of the Carnival and the return of normality in the almost entire country, with the containment of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The survey is based on the Annual Services Survey and the Monthly Services Survey, both from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
According to IBGE, it is verified that the Tourist Activities Index has registered a growth of 75.6% in March when compared to the data for that month of 2021. The data show that the number of tourists increased especially in São Paulo (85.7%), Minas Gerais (100%), Rio de Janeiro (42.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (131.3%) and Bahia (66.6%).