Brazilian Carnival Celebrations Reflect Tourism Rebound

This year, Brazil’s Carnival celebrations are expected to host 200,000 international tourists who are expected to contribute $200 million in revenue to the South American nation, said officials at Embratur, Brazil’s state-owned tourist board.

The annual festival resumed last year after a two-year pandemic shutdown. Embratur and Rio de Janeiro officials have since inked a partnership with the United Nations World Tourism Agency (UNWTO) to create a “Tourism Sustainability Index” to measure “the impacts of Rio Carnival on the city’s production chain over the course of a year,” officials said.

The sustainability index is based on UNWTO’s guidelines for Tourism Sustainability Monitoring and will “serve as a future reference for other tourist cities in Brazil,” said officials, to “contribute to Embratur in generating intelligence.”

In 2023, Brazil surpassed its pre-pandemic arrivals, with approximately six million international visitors, a three percent increase over 2019 totals and a 62.7 percent increase over the 3.6 million visitors hosted in 2022.

“[Brazil has] overcome the difficult period of the Covid pandemic,” said Marcelo Freixo, Embratur’s president, “and are entering a time of dialogue, of reaffirmation of democracy [and] investment.”

Brazil’s carnival traditionally extends five days, although some events are held for an entire week in cities ranging from Rio de Janeiro to Salvador de Bahia.

Parades, street parties and a series of organized festivities began this year on February 9 and will end on February 13, the day before Ash Wednesday.

Added Freixo, “Brazil is ready, with open arms to welcome everyone.”

Rio de Janeiro’s international airport hosted a true Brazilian party to commemorate what was called…