Brazail Tourism tries to rise from pandemic ashes

Slow growth: A cruise ship is seen in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s tourism industry rebounded only partially in 2021, growing around 20%. — AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: With the glittering parades, towering floats and sultry samba postponed by the Omicron variant, Brazil will have a carnival week without much carnival this year – bad news for a tourism industry already battered by the pandemic.

In a world without Covid-19, this would have been the week a deluge of tourists – more than 2.1 million in 2020 – descended on Rio de Janeiro for a free-for-all of street parties and spectacular, all-night parades.