The challenges of Cruising in Brazil, now outweigh the benefits Brazil is a magnificent country in Tourism terms with a wide diversity of attractions from the sun-drenched Samba and Tanga beaches of Copacabana, where Havana’sare the desired footwear, to the earth’s greatest Rainforest in the Amazon. Brazil is the size of a continent and the “B”of the BRICS countries that are supposed to dominate our planet by 2020. Cruising once boomed in the seaside city of Santos, which is the
country’s main embarkation port, as Cruise Lines clamoured to get a hold of those strong REALS held by Brazilians that were not shy to spend! However, recently, it’s all gone a little pear-shaped. In particular Costa Crociere have scaled back from 5 ships to 2, market leaders MSC do not show the same signs of growth and most American / European Cruise Lines are purposely avoiding Brazil.
So what’s the problem? In essence there are 3 fundamental issues as follows:
Cabotage
The forced employment of Brazilian nationals among the compliment of Crew kicks-in after the 31st day a ship frequents Brazilian waters (Cruise or Cargo). The actual percentage varies, for Cruise ships, but starts at 25% and goes all the way up to a staggering 75%!
The Recruitment and training of Brazilian nationals, who are not all ideally suited to the culture and work ethics of life on board is challenging to say the least for most Cruise Lines, which is a major deterrent to deploying Cruise ships in Brazilian waters for any length of time, which is actually to the detriment of the Brazilian economy, considering the potential.
