The first, real, hard numbers that the economic crisis that has gripped Brazil for the past year has had an impact on travel to the U.S. came last week in the annual report on tourism from Visit Florida. According the report, the number of Brazilians who visited Florida last year totaled 1.47 million—down 170,000 from 1.64 million in 2014. The year-over-year decline was a little more than 10 percent. Brazil is the number three long-haul source market for international tourists for Florida. The UK and Canada are number one and two, respectively. Florida is the top state destination for Brazilians traveling to the United States.
Also, with U.S. dollar trading very high against the Brazilian real and other major global currencies, Brazilian spending on international travel fell 43.5 percent in February, compared with February 2015 according to numbers released by Brazil’s Central Bank. Spending reached $ 841 million for the month, compared with $ 1.49 billion during February 2014. The level is the lowest result in seven years, the Central Bank reported. If, on one hand the Brazilian expenses abroad fell, foreign revenues in Brazil increased by 14.97 percent in the same comparison period. The foreign revenue in the country totaled US $599 million last month, compared with $521 million in February and 2015. With these results, the deficit in the travel account was $242 million.
