Tourism has a 41% drop in the number of trips in 2021, says IBGE

O The tourism sector had a 41% drop in the number of domestic and foreign trips in 2021, compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic period, indicated this Wednesday (6) a study by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) .

The result was obtained through a question module at Pnad Contínua (Continuous National Household Sample Survey), which interviews residents from addresses across the country.

In 2019, before the restrictions caused by Covid-19, the survey investigated 20.9 million national and international trips with overnight stays.

Two years later, in 2021, with the health crisis already underway, the number dropped to 12.3 million. The 41% drop comes from this comparison.

The study was named Pnad Turismo 2020-2021 and takes into account different modes of transport, such as car, plane and bus. The historical series started in 2019.

In 2020, the initial year of the pandemic, the number of trips evaluated was 13.6 million. That is, it was around 35% below 2019 and 10% above 2021.

“The results somehow express the effects of the pandemic,” said Flávia Vinhaes, an IBGE analyst responsible for the research.

“The year 2021 was worse for tourism in Brazil than 2020. The crisis has deepened,” he added.

Of the 12.3 million trips investigated in 2021, 12.2 million (99.3%) were national. Another 90 thousand had abroad (0.7%) as their destination.

In 2019, before the pandemic, the survey had accounted for 20.1 million (96.2%) trips within the country. The international share had been 799 thousand (3.8%).

The proportion of households where a resident traveled had reached 21.8% in 2019. The percentage dropped to 13.9% in 2020 and 12.7% in 2021.

For the first time, the study collected information on tourism expenditure.

In 2021, total spending on domestic overnight trips totaled BRL 9.8 billion, against BRL 11 billion in 2020. Expenses involve, for example, accommodation, food and tours.

Last year, the largest expenditures were on trips to São Paulo (R$1.8 billion), Bahia (R$1.1 billion) and Rio de Janeiro (R$1 billion).

One in five trips (or 20.6%) went to São Paulo, the most sought after state. Minas Gerais (11.4%) and Bahia (9.5%) followed.

The survey also provides information on daily spending per capita (per person) on national overnight trips in 2021.

According to this indicator, the highest average value was registered in the Federal District (R$ 292), followed by Rio de Janeiro (R$ 288) and Santa Catarina (R$ 257). The lowest occurred in Roraima (R$ 57).

The survey also points out that about 57.2% of trips in 2021 were carried out in private or company cars, 12.5% ​​in regular buses and 10.2% in planes.

Of the displacements in the same period, around 85.4% were personally motivated, and 14.6% were professional.