Tourism takes off in Brazil and records almost 1 million international tourists in January this year

The Brazilian summer continues to be the apotheosis of our tourism, and in January the arrival of international visitors once again demonstrated global interest in our destinations, especially sun and beach destinations. In total, 956,737 tourists from abroad came to Brazil, with an increase in the flow of all main emitters, with the exception of Argentina, which is experiencing a worsening of its economic crisis.

Data from Embratur, Ministry of Tourism (MTur) and Federal Police demonstrate the maintenance of the previous summer’s level, with a slight decrease of -1.4%, driven precisely by the lower attendance of Argentines. In total, there were 14,538 fewer international tourists, as in the first 31 days of 2023 the country received 971,275 visitors from abroad.

Compensatory actions

As for tourists from Argentina, Brazil’s main emitter, the drop reached 19%, or -110,310 tourists compared to January 2023, when 562,446 brothers came to enjoy the summer and pre-carnival festivities. This year, there were 452,136 Argentines. The negative result was mitigated due to the actions of Embratur, which established a contingency plan for the economic crisis that the neighboring country is experiencing.

With information from data intelligence, in contact with entities in Argentina and with the analysis of reports from the Brazilian Embassy in Argentina, since May 2023, Embratur has reoriented its actions in two directions: to reinforce the promotion of Brazil as an alternative to Argentine tourists with high purchasing power, who recalculated their trips due to the price of the dollar and the euro; and reinforce the promotion of Brazil in Latin American countries, to guarantee an increase in visitors that would compensate for the drop in arrivals of Argentines.

The president of Embratur, Marcelo Freixo, highlighted the compensatory measures that allowed the maintenance of entry levels of international tourists at the start of the summer. “With the adoption of this strategy, it was possible to maintain the record of international tourist arrivals in Brazil at levels equivalent to those of January last year. We kept our attention on Argentina, it is our main market and will not stop being so, but we have very important results in the short term across the continent, with emphasis on Chile and Paraguay”, he explained.

Argentines continue to be the main sources of tourists to Brazil. The second largest emitter in the period was Paraguay, which showed an increase in the number of entries into the country of 19,454, going from 84,884 in January 2023 to 104,338 in 2024. The percentage growth was 22.9%.

“We have excellent prospects for increasing the number of foreigners in Brazil this year. We will host the meeting of G20 leaders, we will begin preparations for COP30, we will have the WTO office in Rio de Janeiro. We will continue working to improve Brazil’s image at major international events. With this joint action, we will remain firm to reach the goal of 10 million foreigners in four years”, highlighted the Minister of Tourism, Celso Sabino.

Chile stands out

Third place in emissions, in the month of January, went to Chile, which also presented the highest percentage growth: 47.8%. The country went from 52,217 tourists in Brazil in the first month of 2023 to 77,221 last January, an increase of 25,004 visitors. Furthermore, in 2023, Chile returned to the pre-pandemic level recorded in 2018 and regained its position as the third largest market sending tourists to Brazil, with a total of 458,576 arrivals.

In fourth place, in January, Uruguay went from 56,438 tourists sent to Brazil to 62,848 in the same period this year – an increase of 6,410, or 11.3%. Next, in fifth, comes the United States, with an increase in the number of tourists in January that reached 8.9%. The country went from 47,651 in January last year to 51,919 this year, 4,268 more.

Bolivia sent 17,686 tourists to Brazil last January, an increase of 4,396, and ranked sixth. Peru, in seventh, had an increase of 2,194 visitors, with 9,214 registered entries. Ecuador comes next, with 1,690 arrivals and an increase of 78 tourists, and Venezuela registered 1,184 tourists in the first 31 days of this year, an increase of 158 visitors compared to January of the previous year. The other issuing countries together grew by 40,636, going from 167,639 to 208,275 in the comparison between the periods.

*With information from consultancy

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