Top industry leader says domestic growth leads recovery, sales for international segment are “heating up.” U.S. travel suppliers and DMOs who’ve depended in the past on a strong Brazilian inbound market in the past, have received some reassuring news from the just-released Brazilian Overview Monthly Report for September.
“We begin the last quarter of 2020 with some very good data and perspectives for the rebound of travel in Brazil. Domestic trips are leading the way,” José Guilherme Alcorta, CEO of the authoritative PANROTAS, publisher of news and analytic products, told subscribers to the report, “but there is a huge demand just waiting for the end of restrictions to countries such as Argentina, United States, Chile, Portugal, Italy and France. Sales for international travels in 2021 are starting to heat up and we hope to get by the end of 2020 with a clear outlook for next year and beyond.”
He also said that “there is the expectation of a vaccine in São Paulo as soon as October, with the immunization completed in 2021. That will surely bring back confidence and allow Brazilians to travel more freely.”
To suggest that Alcorta’s words are reassuring are an understatement for Brazilian international tour operators and U.S.-based receptive tour operators who have depended on travelers from Brazil, which had begun last year to recover from a period of weak demand and was, according to the latest long-term forecast from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office, the number five overseas source market for the United States, behind only the UK, Japan, China and South Korea.
Some of the highlights of the Overview, which PANROTAS publishes along with FerocomercioSP, the São Paulo organization that has a wide portfolio of products dealing with business, economic and research subjects, include the following:
—Brazil’s Consumer Confidence Index (ICC) was relatively stable in July and August. And while it is below the level of 2019, it still remains at an optimistic level. “The recovery of confidence is in charge of the economy, slowly and gradually,” said the report.
—”A relatively recent simple announcement of a possible removal of travel restrictions from Brazil to the United States made sales and searches for airline tickets to American cities soar.” As companies are offering flexible rebooking policies, many Brazilians are taking advantage of promotion opportunities and buying tickets for the end of the year and summer (December to March).
—Travel companies are betting on Brazil and the Caribbean as the main destinations for the resumption of travel at the end of the year.
—The wave of layoffs at operators and travel agencies has created another phenomenon: the creation of new agencies and independent consultants that seek the structure of larger companies to serve their customers
—Car rentals and vacation rentals are in high demand by tourists.
—Direct flights will be preferred when international travel resumes (in to avoid more flights and more time at airports) to destinations such as Miami, Orlando, New York, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Paris, Rome, Istanbul, and Dubai.
Click here to download the September edition of the Brazilian Overview Monthly Report
—Another note of relatively upbeat news came via the results of the sixth monthly survey of Braztoa (Brazilian Association of Tour Operators) conducted since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic showed that 79 percent of member operators made sales in August. The index was at 78 percent for August.
—The survey also indicated that the percentage of companies that reported having sold up to 50 percent compared to the previous year’s revenue increased from 10 percent to 25 percent.
