Brazil loses nearly 50,000 tourism companies amid pandemic

Nearly 50,000 companies in Brazil’s tourism industry — 17 percent of the sector’s employers — went out of business between March and August 2020. The data comes from the National Confederation of Commerce and Tourism (CNC).

The worst-affected businesses were bars and restaurants, with 39,500 closing their doors permanently. As in many other sectors, the majority of the firms which suffered the most were small businesses.

As a result, the tourism industry lost 13.8 percent of its workforce and, between March and September, revenues amounted to only one-quarter of their potential. Meanwhile, losses reached BRL 207 billion in the past six months. 

CNC expects Brazil to end the year with an overall loss of 42,700 companies in the sector. The slow recovery, they say, is due to the “the aversion of consumers and companies to such services, as well as the rigid sanitary protocols imposed on providers.”

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