Lula’s decision for a foreign visa is a setback – 03/11/2023 – Panel SA

The Lula government’s decision to reverse the visa waiver for travelers from Australia, Canada, the United States and Japan was “a setback” in the opinion of Sandro Fernandes, CEO of Parque Bondinho Pão de Açúcar, one of Brazil’s tourist attractions most popular among foreigners in Rio de Janeiro.

The executive claims that the release of visas offered by former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2019 has the potential to attract visitors, but the pandemic has barred its effects from 2020.

“There are a combination of factors to infer that this visa waiver had no effect. I’m sorry, it did have an effect. And it wasn’t little. It was very positive”, he says.

According to Fernandes, the government’s new decision worried the tourism sector as a whole. “Instead of closing the door to four nationalities, we should be discussing which are the next four to release visa exemption”, he says.

As mr. How do you evaluate the government’s initiative to reverse the visa waiver for travelers from these four countries? Does it have an impact for you? If this really happens, it will be a setback for Brazilian tourism. It is a pity that the president made such a decision at a time when Brazil is doing the opposite.

Embratur came back with the slogan Brazil, which is beautiful and that everyone in tourism was seeing as positive. Now, if the president returns even with this need for visas, it goes against the very campaign of the Ministry of Tourism and Embratur.

Instead of closing the door to four nationalities, we should be discussing which are the next four to release visa exemptions. And then four more. This should be the government’s agenda.

Figures from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that the visa waiver for these countries did not necessarily lead to an increase in the flow of visitors. Does it make sense to keep it anyway?I can explain this easily. When comparing 2018 with 2019, there was an increase in the flow because in 2019 the visa was released for the four citizenships. A positive impact of Americans coming to Brazil has already been seen.

But in 2020 came the pandemic. The year 2021 was also affected by the pandemic. In 2022, we cannot forget that the first quarter was affected by the omicron. It was very heavy for Brazilian and world tourism. There was no way to get to Brazil in recent years. If even today the mesh is not complete, imagine a year ago.

There are a combination of factors to infer that this visa waiver had no effect. I’m sorry, it had effect yes. And it wasn’t little. It was very positive. When it started, the number of Americans walking along Sugarloaf Mountain compared to the period when a visa was required was overwhelming. With the Japanese it was the same thing.

We have to believe that tourism generates jobs, income and development much faster than a factory, for example. If a factory has the power to bring 200 jobs to a city, the tourism chain benefits from several segments.

When a tourist, along with his family, stays one more day at the destination, it is one more day at a hotel, a restaurant, a taxi, a tourist attraction. It moves the entire tourism chain. It makes me very sad to see a setback like this. We have to facilitate the visa and not make it difficult.

What is the importance of the participation of these Australian, Canadian, Japanese and American tourists in visiting the cable car?For foreigners, attractions in Brazil are relatively cheap because of the exchange rate. Foreigners pay full price and consume more. And it’s not just for Bondinho. It’s for everything he does in the tourism chain. And it also requires further improvement and indirectly helps in the development of our tourism. It has a virtuous circle.

Do you intend, individually or with any entity in the tourism sector, to send this message to the government and ask that this reciprocity be rethought?Several entities are moving, the state secretariats, the group of the 20 largest tourism associations. Everyone is really worried about this government decision.

Are there other actions the government could take to boost tourism and attract visitors, such as improving infrastructure and fighting crime? What should be the priorities?I think we should be working on an agenda to improve connectivity, because there’s no point in calling people to come visit us if we don’t provide the conditions. Brazil is a country very rich in natural beauties in all regions from North to South. So we need to think about that connectivity.

We have to think about infrastructure so that the person can take a car and have internationally understandable signs. It is necessary to have investment in English training for the workforce in tourism. People don’t speak English and it’s difficult to serve a foreign tourist.

We have to adopt tourism as a source of growth, development, job and income generation in the country. We have to love Brazil and have policies that perennially attack this perception of lack of security.

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With a degree in production engineering from USP (University of São Paulo) and an MBA from Vanderbilt University, in the USA, the executive worked at companies such as Iguatemi, Tiffany&Co and Loungerie Intimates, before assuming the position of CEO of Parque Bondinho Pão de Açúcar in 2018

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