Brazil is experiencing a recovery in its tourism activity at all levels, and one of them is that of cruises. During the 2022-2023 season, between 650,000 and 700,000 tourists traveled the Brazilian coast in large ships, according to the Brazilian Association of Maritime Cruises (Clia Brasil). In the previous season (2021-2022), travelers totaled just 141,000, a number that is explained, in large part, by the sanitary restrictions for the prevention of Covid-19 infections.
According to Clia Brasil, the last cruise season was the best on record in the country. For the period from October 2023 to May 2024, the incorporation of new ships is expected, with a 7% increase in the offer of cabins and more than 800,000 people on board. The dominant companies in the Brazilian market are MSC, with seven of the ten active vessels, and Costa Cruises.
Santos (Sao Paulo), Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), Salvador (Bahia) and Maceió (Alagoas) are the busiest ports in Brazil for cruise ships, but this year activities will be boosted in the south of the country, in ports Itajaí (Santa Catarina) and Paranaguá (Paraná), according to the entity that groups companies in the sector. From Itajaí, the tours will include the city of Camboriú -one of the main summer tourist destinations in Santa Catarina for South American travelers- and the cruises will depart for Argentina and Uruguay. From Paranaguá, there will also be tours of the Santa Catarina coast and the ports of Buenos Aires and Punta del Este, a classic of the southern summer.
At the beginning of May, the National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil (Anvisa) revoked the requirement to present proof of vaccination or negative Covid-19 tests to board cruise ships within Brazil, although it maintained the requirement to isolate suspected cases. appear on board. The measure was approved after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official end of the pandemic.
According to data from the Brazilian Agency for the International Promotion of Tourism (Embratur), only in the first quarter of 2023, Brazil received 2.3 million international tourists. Travelers injected into the country's economy the equivalent of 8.6 billion reais (about USD 1.791 billion), a flow that boosted trade, employment and income in the cities visited.