Brazil ended 2025 with the highest level of tourism activity in 14 years. The tourism activity index (IATUR) closed out the year with a 4.6 percent increase compared to 2024. With this performance, the sector reached its highest level in the historical series.
The data were released Thursday (Feb. 12) by the statistics bureau IBGE.
The index brings together 22 of the 166 service activities investigated in the survey that are linked to tourism – such as hotels, travel agencies, catering services, and passenger air transport.
The performance in December 2025 puts tourism activities 13.8 percent above the pre-pandemic level in February 2020, when the economy began to face health and trade restrictions.
The indicator has been calculated since 2011. Last year was the fifth consecutive year of expansion in tourism activities.
The index in recent years was as follows:
2020 – -36.7%;
2021 – 22.2%;
2022 – 29.9%;
2023 – 7.2%;
2024 – 3.6%;
2025 – 4.6%.
The decline of more than 30 percent in 2020 was caused by the pandemic. However, the strong growth in the following two years is related to the recovery from the health and economic crisis.
Drivers of growth in 2025
According to IBGE, growth in 2025 was driven by increases in revenue reported by passenger air transport companies, catering services, and hotel and accommodation booking services.
Researchers gather information from 17 of the 27 Brazilian states.
