Brazil fears slower flow of incoming U.S. tourists

Brazilian authorities are keyed up and for good reasons. The government’s decision to take mugs and fingerprints of all American citizens traveling to the country could dampen efforts to lure sunbathers to the nation, said Ricardo Schaefer, special advisor to Tourism Minister Walfrido dos Mares Guia.

As a commencement to the proceedings, law enforcement officer began Monday to take thumb prints rather than from all ten fingers.

The legal action was upheld by a Brazilian judge last week in response to similar measures taken in the United States, whose customs officers are registering fingerprints and making mugs of all alien visitors coming to the country via airports and seaports.

Such requirements in the U.S. went into effect Monday and rule out citizens from 27 nations, mostly European allies, whose mugs and fingerprints are not required to obtain a tourist visa or make a brief business trip to America.

But Brazilians are blacklisted, as well as citizens from other countries, a reason that moved Judge Julier Sebastio de Silva last week, based on the concept of diplomatic reciprocity, to order the implementation of similar procedures for U.S. visitors coming to Brazil.

The new move is very much in sync with the hard line that has marked Brazilian-American relations since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office. Mr. Lula has made no bones in confronting Washington in a number of issues during the first year of his presidency.

But Brazil’s Tourism Ministry fears such a calibrated response could make a dent in the much-anticipated number of U.S. trekkers, up 58 percent between 1997 and 2003, Mr. Schaefer pointed out.

As part of the new program aimed at bringing more tourists to Brazil, the country’s Tourism Ministry projects the opening of travel bureaus in New York City and Washington. In a similar effort, the Lula administration is goading the U.S. government into discarding an additional measure that would require American citizens to get a visa to travel to Brazil.

American trippers, meanwhile, seem to understand the Brazilian counteractions, even though they hate standing in long lines while passengers’ prints are taken the old-fashioned way: having their fingers smeared in ink. American officials take fingerprints through high-tech digital means, so all passengers need to do is press one finger on a specific point at the request of an immigration officer.

“Our system is electronic and the whole proceeding is done in a jiffy. Here (in Brazil) the procedure takes 15 to 20 minutes per person,” said Lorin Hall, a U.S. tourist who went through the process as he arrived in Rio de Janeiro last weekend.