Lula returns to demand visas for US tourists in Brazil – 05/03/2023 – World

Brazil will once again require tourists from the US, Australia, Canada and Japan to present a visa to enter the country. The decision, published in the Official Gazette this Wednesday (3), takes effect in October and revokes a measure promoted by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) that waived permits unilaterally.

A Sheet it had already anticipated in March that the government would take a resolution in this regard. One way out studied at the time was to return to the principle of reciprocity. Adopted historically by Itamaraty, it expects to demand from citizens of other countries the same rules that these States determine for Brazilian citizens.

The Chancellery was studying the impact of the measure on tourism. In the case of the US, the increase in the number of tourists from 2018 to 2019 was 12%, from 391 thousand to 439 thousand. Already in 2022, 355 thousand Americans came, below the pre-Covid level. In relation to Japan, there was a decrease of 4% in the flow of visitors from 2018 to 2019, from 59 thousand to 56 thousand. In 2022, there were 16,800 tourists from the Asian country.

Bolsonaro announced the revocation of the need on the eve of the trip he would make to the United States, to meet the then president, Donald Trump, in March 2019. The visa waiver applied to those traveling to Brazil for tourism, business, transit purposes and artistic and sporting activities. The measure also extended to people “in exceptional situations in the national interest”.