Brazil plans to waive visas for visitors
from U.S., Japan
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[October 24, 2016]
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's
government is considering waiving visas for visitors from the United
States, Japan, Canada and Australia to boost tourism, and could
eventually extend the plan to include China, a tourism ministry
spokesman said on Monday.
The proposal by new Tourism Minister Marx Beltrão would extend for a
12-month trial period a visa-waiver program adopted for visitors from
the four countries during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this year.
Brazil's President Michel Temer is keen to draw more foreign investment
and visitors to Brazil to help pull Latin America's largest nation from
its worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression.
In 2015, 575.800 U.S. citizens visited Brazil, less than 10 percent of
the total number of visitors to the South American nation. Meanwhile,
the number of Brazilians visiting the United States soared in recent
years to 2.6 million visitors in 2014.
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The visa exemptions would become permanent if the number of tourists
rises significantly and the governments of the four countries
reciprocate by removing visa requirements for Brazilians visitors, the
spokesman said.
The minister's proposal still needs approval by other departments of the
Brazilian government, particularly the foreign ministry which issues the
visas and has demanded reciprocity to exempt U.S. citizens from needing
visas.
Visitors from most Latin American and European Union nations, and
Russia, do not need visas to travel to Brazil, but U.S. travelers have
to cough up $160 for a visa to visit Brazil, an identical fee charged to
Brazilians for visas to visit the United States.
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![](../images/102416pics/news_n25.jpg)
Tourists walk down from the top of Roraima Mount, near Venezuela's
border with Brazil January 18, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
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The Brazilian fee was levied in retaliation for exclusion of Brazil
from the U.S. visa waiver program.
The tourism ministry is studying the inclusion of several other
countries in its visa waiver plan, mainly China to try to attract
some of the 100 million Chinese tourists that travel abroad each
year, the spokesman said.
Only 55,000 Chinese citizens visited Brazil last year.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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