David Scowsill, president of WTTC, congratulated the Brazilian officials’ decision and encourages other countries to boost their tourist numbers by following Brazil’s example:

“WTTC would like to commend the Brazilian government on the move to exempt visas for certain key nationalities as this will boost the country’s inbound travel and benefit the economy of the country.

“Currently the country only receives five per cent of its tourism income from foreign spending in comparison to 95 per cent from domestic spending.

“UNWTO data shows that international visitor numbers have been static between 5.3 and 5.7 million since 2000, with the exception of the World Cup year of 2014.

“The country would benefit greatly from extensive visa waiver programs to boost these inbound tourism numbers.”

As the tourism industry generates 9.6 per cent of the country’s GDP and 8.8 million jobs, this latest exemption decision is considered to be “a great step for Brazil”, with long term economic and social benefits for the country.