Brazil's new e-visa could boost tourism by 25%

The early success of the new Brazilian electronic visa for Canadian visitors, launched last January, indicates that the program can help to expand the number of travellers to Brazil. The remark was made by the general coordinator of tourist segments, Alexandre Nakagawa, during a meeting last week in Toronto with the Canadian trade media.

The new e-visa offering aims to present the diversified Brazilian tourist offer, and to foster opportunities for commercialization between Brazilian and international operators.

Initially, the Brazilian online visa program launched in four countries: Australia, the United States, Canada and Japan have all been deemed a success, with a huge growth in the number of visitors applying in the last months.

In February, after one month of being in operation, there was a 76 per cent jump in the application for entry authorizations in the country. In Canada alone, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry registered an increase of 40 per cent in the number of visa applications in the same month.

“The issuing of e-visas is simple, easy and cheaper. The entire process, from applying to paying the fees, analysis, concession and emission takes an estimate of 72 hours, and costs USD 40, substantially cheaper than the traditional visa,” said Nakagawa.

During the launch of the new e-visa, the president of the Brazilian Tourism Board, Vinicius Lummertz, estimated that the new program would boost the number of travellers to Brazil by at least 25 per cent, with a potential to arrive to 50 per cent. In 2017, Brazil received a record number of more than 6.5 million international visitors. Canada is the 21st nation in the ranking, with nearly 50 thousand visitors in 2017.

The electronic visa is part of a series of measures adopted by the country to increase the number of international tourists, said Lummertz. “Our plans is to double visitor numbers and triple revenue by 2022, and to do so we need to improve the investment environment and to open up the market. A bill that may be approved in Congress in the next days will definitely help to modernize the sector, and to reduce the bureaucracy, opening the country to the global market," Lummertz said.