President Jair Bolsonaro will announce the end of the entry visa requirement in Brazil for visitors from the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. The measure will be one-sided, without reciprocity as is customary in such cases, and will only apply to the citizens of these four countries. The change had already been defined by a thematic working group on tourism during the government transition, between early November and the end of December last year. The same countries chosen by the Bolsonaro government had already been exempted from the visa requirement for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, temporarily. Chancellor Ernesto Araújo’s cabinet document containing proposals for measures for the first 100 days of government pointed out that the United States and Canada should be exempt from visas for issuing “large numbers of tourists.” The GLOBO report heard from a member of the Ministry of Tourism that one reason for the decision was the diagnosis that the hotel industry in the country is idle. In January, Tourism Minister Marcelo Álvaro Antônio told GLOBO that the measure could attract more visitors to Brazil in the short term. – They are countries with low immigration risk, excellent in tourists, good emitters of expenses and that do not have consular problems. Our expectation is to boost tourism and, consequently, the generation of jobs and income in Brazil – said the minister at the time.
