Business travel in Brazil decreases by 40% in the 1st half of 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Revenue from business travel, one of the segments that suffered the most from the Covid 19 pandemic, decreased 39.6% in the first half of this year compared to last year’s same period. The data came from the Brazilian Association of Business Travel Agencies (Abracorp) and were released on Monday (16).

Considering all segments served by the sector’s companies, transactions totaled R$1.427 billion (US$270 million), compared to R$2.364 billion from January to June last year. The year-on-year decrease is explained because the pandemic did not affect business until after March 15, 2020.

In the hotel industry, which includes domestic and international hotels, revenues decreased from R$690 million in the first half of 2020 to R$572 million in the same period this year. In air transport, revenues fell from R$1.426 billion to R$722 million, a decrease of 49.3%.

According to Gervásio Tanabe, Executive President of Abracorp, some segments are already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel despite the still poor figures.

Examples include the car rental industry, which saw a recovery when comparing the first half of 2020 and 2021, and the national hotel industry, whose sales were also higher than 2020 and 2021.

“But in this second semester, there are still great difficulties. With the development of the national vaccination campaign and the prospect of the release of events, which has already begun in some states, the reflections will certainly be positive, and there could be a faster resumption of business travel and an improvement in business in this sector,” said Tanabe.

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