• Highlights

• Last year, the proportion of households in which at least one resident reported having traveled in the reference period of the Tourism Module of Continuous PNAD was 19.8%. In 2021, the year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic the figure was 12.7%. In 2020, it was 13.9%.
• In 2020, first year of the pandemic, the number of trips of residents was estimated at 13.6 million, having dropped to 12.3 million in 2021 and, in 2023, with the end of the sanitary emergency, it reached 21.1 million, an increase of 71.5%. This figure includes national and international trips.
• About 85.5% of these trios were for personal purposes, and leisure was the main reason indicated, representing 38.7% of them, followed by visits or event promoted by relatives and friends (33.1%).
• On the other hand, 14.3% of the trips were for professional purposes, with 82.4% of them for work and 11.6% for events and professional development courses.
• The search for the sun and beaches was the main type of leisure reported by interviewees, accounting for 46.2% of the total trips for the same purpose.
• The lowest income class, of those living on a Monthly income below Half a minimum wage per capita, despite representing 22.0% of the 77.4 million households estimated to exist in the country, accounted for only 12.9% of those in which there were trips in the reference period of the survey.
• In trips, the participation of non-collective means of transportation, such as private or company car, fell from 57.5%, in 2020, to 51.1%, in 2023. On the contrary, the proportion of the use of collective vehicles, such as bus and airplane, increased.
• The most popular type of accommodation, chosen in 41.8% of the total trips, was the home of a relative or friend of the traveler.
• In most national trips (82.5%), the same region was origin and destination, with a highlight to travelers heading for the Southeast (38.0%).
• Travelers departing from the Northeast had the lowest average costs of trips (R$ 1,170). However, the highest average costs were registered when the destination was a state in this Major Region (R$ 2,321).

Whereas between 2020 and 2021, years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of trips of residents of permanent private housing units in Brazil fell from 13.6 to 12.3 million, in 2023, this total reached 21.1 million, an increase of 71.5%, including national and international trips.

The proportion of housing units where at least one resident reported having traveled in the period of reference of the survey increased from 12.7%, in 2021, to 19.8% in 2023. That means that, in 15.3 million Brazilian housing units, a resident traveled within the period of three months preceding the interview of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). In 2020, this percentage reached 13.9%. The data were released today (13) and are part of the Tourism module.

“The data of 2020 and 2021, when compared to the ones of 2023, show the effects the pandemic had on the results of tourism in Brazil,” says the analyst of the survey, William Kratochwill.

In 2023, 85.7% of the trips were for personal purposes and 14.3% for professional purposes. Leisure was the main reason indicated for personal trips, representing 38.7% of them, followed by visits or events with relatives or friends (33.1%), health treatments or medical appointments (19.8%) and the category other (8.4%), which includes trips for personal purchases, courses and religious reasons, for example. Against 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in leisure, health treatment or medical appointment. On the other hand, in terms of professional reasons, 82.4% were for business or for work and 11.6% for events and courses for professional development.

“Leisure, that was the reason for 33% of the trips with personal purposes in 2020, went on to represent  38.7% of those trips in 2023, and the visit to or events promoted by one’s family went from 38.7% to 33.1%, which reflects a change in the main reason for this type of trip. During the pandemic, people traveled to visit relatives and friends and, after that period, the search for leisure increased,” the research remarked.

Among the forms of leisure reported, the Search for sunlight and the beach stood out, accounting for 46.2% of the total. In second place came trips related to nature, ecotourism and adventure (22.0%) and culture and cuisine (21.5%). The category other, which encompasses, for example, heterogeneous activities such as sporting ones and elderly gatherings, accounted for 10.2% of the total.

“The Brazilian has the sun and the beach as its main demand, but that has decreased. The participation of this kind of leisure fell by 9.4 percentage points (p.p.) between 2020 and 2023. On the other hand, there was an increase of 6.0 p.p. in trips in search of culture and cuisine.”

The survey also analyzes the occurrence of trips related to the income ranges of residents.  The category sun and beach was the one most often mentioned by income  ranges, but the proportion decreased with the increase of income. In households earning from half to one minimum wage per capita, the proportion reached 55.4%, whereas the percentage for those earning four or more minimum wages per capita was 38.9%. Nature, ecotourism or adventure were the reason for 18.0% of people earning the lowest income and for 23.3% those with the highest income.

Considering the lowest income range, formed by those with a monthly income below half a minimum wage per capita, represented 22.0% of the 77.4 million households estimated in the country, but its participation among those that traveled in the reference period of the survey was smaller: 12.9%. On the other hand, households with  income per capita of four or more minimum wages were equivalent to 7.1% of the total and 16.4% of the households where trips occurred.

Lack of money was the main reason preventing trips for those living in household with lowest income. That was the reason mentioned by 40.1%, or 24.9 million of the 62.1 million households in the country where no trips were recorded. Considering households with less than half a minimum wage per capita, this percentage was 55.4%, a proportion more than four times bigger than in the highest income range (12.1%), for which lack of time (32.7%) was the main reason for not traveling. As for households with lowest income, lack of time was reported as the main reason in only 6.9%.  

Despite decrease in participation, the car is still the main means of transportation used in trips

With the end of the pandemic, the use of non-mass transportation, such as a private or company car for trips fell from 57.5%, in 2020, to 51.1%, in 2023. The participation of regular bus lines, which was 11.6%, increased to 13.3% in the same period, and was below the use of the airplane, which dropped from 10.6% to 13.7%.

These changes were bigger in trips for work: in 2020, almost half (49.9%) of them took place in a private car and the proportion fell to 42.7% in 2023. Trips by plane went on to represent 27.4% of the total trips with such purpose, with an increase against 2020 (20.1%) and 2021 (11.4%).

A friend’s or relative’s home is still the preferred type of accommodation

One of the characteristics surveyed was the type of accommodation chosen by travelers. In about 41.8% of the 21.1 million trips, the accommodation was the home of a friend or relative of the traveler’s, with some differences depending on the reason for the trip: personal reason (46.3%) or for work (14.7%). On the other hand, accommodation in hotel, resorts or flats, used in 18.1% of the total trips, accounted for 45.4% of the trips for professional reasons in 2023 and 13.6% of the personal trips.

“The pandemic caused an increase of the percentage of professional trips in which the traveler stays at the home of a friend or relative, and had an influence on the means of transportation used, since the percentage of those traveling in a private or company car was also higher. With the endo f the pandemic, the percentage of this type of accommodation decreases and there is a rise of hotel, resort or flat, that is, travelers go back to public accommodation types and use public means of transportation such as the nus or the airplane.

When income ranges are considered, the choice of a friend or relative’s home as accommodation was lower among the ones with highest income. For those living on less than half a minimum wage per capita, the percentage was 44.2%. For those living on four minimum wages, the proportion was 33.5%. For this income range, the favorite places were hotel, resorts or flats (37.3%). In 5.2% of the trips of people with this level of income, accommodation was a privately-owned housing unit, which was the option for only 0.9% of those with an income of up to half a minimum wage.

Costs of national trips with an overnight stay increase by 78.6% from 2021

The survey also analyzed the costs of national trips with an overnight stay. In 2023, they amounted to more than R$ 20 billion, an increase of 78.6% against the figure of 2021 (R$11.3 billion).

The average cost per traveler in the country increased by 7.5% against 2021, with a change from R$ 1,525 to R$ 1,639. In families with the lowest income, the increase was bigger: those living on up to half a minimum wage increased their expenditure by 16.2% in the same comparison, a change from R$ 637 to R$ 740, which still corresponds to the lowest figure among the classes analyzed. For those with higher income, the increase reached 5.6% on average, that is, R$ 2,731.

In all income ranges, accommodation accounted for the main costs. Considering the entire population, the average expenditure on this type of services was R$ 1,563. For those living on up to half a minimum wage, it was R$ 1,075, whereas mong those with highest income, R$ 2,240. The lowest costs were those of attractions and tours, with R$ 495 per trip on average.

Between 2021 and 2023, the number of trips without an overnight stay increased by 71.0%, and amounted to 5.1 million, whereas those with an overnight stay increased by 70.6%, and reached 15.9 million. That means that, in 75.7% of the trips in the period of reference, there was an overnight stay. The most frequent ones included two or three nights, which added up to  28.5% of the total. the least frequent type was the category of 11 to 15 nights (4.6%).

“In 2023, there was an increase in the number of nights, mainly for trips including one, two or three and four or five nights, which are typical of a weekend or extended holiday. These short trips represented 52.6% of the total of 11.1 million,” Kratochwill observes.

One same Major Region is the origin and destination in most of the trips

Of the 21.1 million trips in 2023, about 97%, or 20.4 million of them had a national destination. In turn, there were 641 thousand trips abroad, an increase of about 132% from  2020, when a total of 276 thousand trips were registered. In the national territory, in most trips (82.5%), the traveler had the same Major region as origin and destination. In 38.0% of the times, the traveler departed from and headed for the Southeast. This Major Region, which is the most populous in the country, was the origin of 45.9% of the total trips, followed by the Northeast (22.0%) and by the South (17.1%). The same sequence remained in relation to the destination of the trip: Southeast (43.4%), Northeast (25.3%) and South (17.4%).

The Southeast also stood out in relation to the total amount of money spent on trips. The biggest amount (R$ 8.0 billion) from the total R$ 20 billion spend on trips with an overnight stay in the country came from travelers heading for this major Region. On the other hand, the highest average amount spent on trips with an overnight stay was in those to the Northeast (R$ 2,321), but travelers departing from states in the same Major Region had the lowest costs (R$ 1,170).

“All the Federation Units in the Northeast recorded very low figures for average costs of trips with an overnight stay when they depart from the same Major Region. But when trips are headed for the Northeast, the figures are the highest, on average. Alagoas, Where the average costs amounted to R$ 3,704, stood out,”, Kratochwill says.

More about the survey

The Tourism module of Continuous PNAD identifies the flow of tourists traveling in the country and. The data presented includes the percentage of housing units whose resident take trips, the number of trips taken and their characteristics, such as reason, destination, means of transportation and average costs. The survey presents data on Brazil, Major Regions and Federation Units. For detailed information see the support material and the complete publication.