Tourism in Brazil: from politics, social inequality, corruption and violence towards the 2030 Brazilian tourism agenda

Purpose: Different from most academic publications about tourism in Brazil, this paper provides an overarching and comprehensive perspective. Analysing key developments, and focusing on the period 2000–2019, this paper also considers long-standing structural issues that hinder tourism development. Although this viewpoint paper deals with Brazil, very similar issues can be identified for many countries worldwide. Design/methodology/approach: This viewpoint paper is a combination of reflections by leading Brazilian tourism academics; most are members of ABRATUR, the International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil. This paper uses secondary data from the grey (e.g. government reports) and academic literature to support this opinion paper. The tourism-related topics covered in this paper include economics, policy and planning, marketing, transport, nature-based tourism, gastronomy, hospitality and education, amongst others. Findings: Brazil has missed several unique opportunities to place it as a destination of international renown. Since the 1990s, efforts to support regional tourism development have achieved only moderate success as political instability, violence and corruption have impacted tourism. A lack of a coordinated approach between the various levels of government, a shortage of tourism data and a long-term supra-government marketing campaign, among other factors, have meant Brazil has missed several critical opportunities in the 2010s to establish itself as a leading tourism destination in the global market. Originality/value: From leading tourism academic experts in Brazil, a unique opinion paper offers an overview of the critical development issues in 2000–2019. The paper presents matters that have hindered potential tourism contributions to the largest nation in South America. While these matters may be specific to Brazil, many of these challenges are not dissimilar to those in other emerging (democratic) nations. The authors offer several public policies and technical recommendations to scaffold tourism development towards the 2030 agenda.