Tourism-oriented sectors in the city of Rio de Janeiro are betting on a heated movement with the 2023 New Year’s Eve party, the first without health restrictions since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hotels, bars and restaurants reinforced their staff and started designing crowded spaces for the New Year. Entrepreneurs talk about reaching numbers similar to those of the pre-coronavirus period.
The last unrestricted turn was from 2019 to 2020. With the ongoing pandemic, the celebration of the passage from 2020 to 2021 was cancelled. The 2022 New Year’s Eve even featured fireworks, but did not bring together musical performances.
For this New Year, the city hall confirmed both the fireworks and the concerts by singers like Zeca Pagodinho, Iza and Alexandre Pires on one of the two stages on Copacabana beach, in the south zone.
“We have great demand for New Year’s Eve. The date falls on the weekend, people can extend their stay”, says Alfredo Lopes, president of HotéisRIO (Union of Means of Accommodation of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro).
According to the leader, part of the hotel chain already had, at the end of November, more than 80% of the rooms reserved for the New Year.
Good winds of the New Year should continue until Carnival
In these establishments, the expectation is to reach the maximum capacity on the festive date, in a movement driven by Brazilian tourists.
“Air tickets are prohibitively expensive, and Rio has the advantage of being close to centers like São Paulo. Many people come by car.”
With four units in the Rio de Janeiro capital, the Arena Hotéis chain has hired around 50 people since November, in an effort to recompose the staff, according to director José Domingo Bouzón.
Currently, the company generates around 250 jobs in the city. “We have already rehired a lot of people. With the expectation of good sales for New Year’s Eve, we continue hiring. The good winds of the New Year should go until Carnival”, says the executive.
In October of this year, the food and beverage sector added 128,400 formal jobs in the city of Rio, according to the Caged (General Register of Employed and Unemployed), released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
The number indicates an increase of 12.8% compared to the same month of 2021, when the segment had 113.8 thousand vacancies.
The job stock, however, was still 4% below January 2020 (133.8 thousand), the first month of the current Caged series.
“It’s going to be a packed New Year’s Eve, for sure”, says Mario Filippo Junior, partner-owner of the Marinho Atlântica restaurant, which is located on the Copacabana beachfront.
According to the businessman, the establishment increased its permanent staff by about 20% in early December. There are 85 workers in total.
The optimism is anchored in the reservations already made for New Year’s Eve. Part of the demand comes from out-of-state customers. “We are going to have a demand greater than the service capacity”, points out Filippo Junior.
The restaurant’s menu provides for New Year’s Eve options with an average price in the range of R$ 800 to R$ 900, which include free food and drink, according to the businessman.
“We expect a nice movement for a sector that is still recovering from the pandemic”, says Fernando Blower, president of SindRio (Union of Bars and Restaurants of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro).
He points out that the movement generated by New Year’s Eve varies according to the region of the city. The businesses most benefited by the date, he says, are those close to party spots or tourist attractions. “The impact is not the same for the entire city.”
According to the leader, bars and restaurants still feel the pressure of high operating costs and have not passed on the entire increase to final prices.
“We’re passing it on in part. Food inflation had a very big impact,” he says.
“The expectation is that inflation will cool down a little next year, not increase at the same level as this year, but still remain at a high level. The first half of next year should be a reckoning”, he projects.
Rio City Hall predicts 2.5 million on New Year’s Eve in Copacabana
In financial terms, New Year’s Eve is the second main event on the tourist calendar in Rio, second only to Carnival, according to Antônio Mariano, Municipal Secretary of Tourism.
He claims that the party in Copacabana usually attracts around 2 million people. This time, points out the secretary, the forecast is to hit 2.5 million or, “with great optimism”, reach 3 million.
“It’s going to be the first real party [de Réveillon] after almost three years of the pandemic.”
Between direct and indirect impacts, the New Year usually generates around R$ 2 billion in Rio’s economy, according to the Municipal Secretariat for Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification, based on data from FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas).
On New Year’s Eve 2023, tourism activities should generate a collection of R$ 14.2 million in ISS (Tax on Services of Any Nature), projects the folder.
According to the secretariat, the estimated amount exceeds by about 20% the amount recorded in the last edition (R$ 11.8 million), already discounting inflation.
The expected collection for this turn is also greater than that verified in the passage from 2019 to 2020 (R$ 13 million), before the pandemic, signals the portfolio.
“We understand that it is a relevant impact”, reports Chicão Bulhões, municipal secretary of Economic Development.
In addition to the two concert stages in Copacabana, the City Hall also announced the installation of another eight throughout the city.
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