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Rio sees 54,6% increase in tourist flow from BRICS countries between January and May 2025
Published on 06/07/2025 - 15:57 | Updated on 07/07/2025 - 13:20
Heads of State and Government of the BRICS member countries - Photo: Ricardo Stuckert / Presidency of the Republic The city of Rio de Janeiro saw a 54,6% increase in tourist visits from BRICS member countries between January and May 2025, compared to the same period in 2024: there were 11.954 tourists this year, compared to 7.734 the previous year. This result exceeds the overall growth in international tourism in the period, which was 49,7%. With the BRICS Summit, which runs until this Monday (July 7), the potential to further boost this flow and strengthen tourism from these countries in the city is even greater, mainly due to the visibility of the meeting in the foreign press.
China was the country with the largest number of visitors: 4.977 tourists, an increase of 44,1% in the period analyzed. In 2024, the Asian giant, which is Brazil's largest trading partner, will be on the list of the 20 countries with the largest tourist flow to Rio, in 18th position, with 9.639 visitors.
The data comes from the Tourism Observatory, an instrument for analyzing tourist movement from the Municipal Tourism Secretariat (SMTUR-RIO), based on data collected by the GeoData tool, based on visitors' cell phone signal.
The Observatory analyzed data from the 10 countries that, in addition to Brazil, make up BRICS, a forum for cooperation and geopolitical strengthening of the Global South: Russia, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Iran. These countries together account for 1,4% of international tourism in Rio: 20.010 of the total 1.466.515 foreign visitors that the city received in 2024.
Other countries in the group that also saw a considerable increase in tourist arrivals to Rio are: Saudi Arabia (+220,5%), Russia (+163,4%), United Arab Emirates (+125,6%) and Indonesia (+60,1%).
