The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is one of the grandest festivals in Brazil, with a rich history of more than 300 years. It is estimated that 2 million people celebrate this festival per day, making it the largest carnival in the world. The weeklong festival, which took place from Feb. 9-14 this year, encompasses every avenue and alley of Rio, truly making it both a one-of-a-kind experience and a boost to economic activity.
This is the second blog in our series, “Eventful Economy: Impact Uncovered.” The first in the series, "The Swift Lift", delved into the economic impact that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour makes in the cities she visits. In this blog, with the help of anonymized and aggregated Mastercard insights, we uncover the economic boost to the local economy from Carnival in Rio.
Samba music isn’t the only vibration that Carnival sends rippling through Rio! The festival generates significant vibrations in the city’s economy as it draws visitors from around the world. We focus on this aspect – examining spending from tourists across different categories. We find the impact to be most pronounced for spending on food, both at restaurants/bars and groceries, along with accommodations.
In-depth analysis of the uplift in the city of Rio suggests that the surge in inbound tourist spending on restaurants and bars is concentrated in the South Zone and the Downtown area. The same pattern is observed each year, with the strongest uplift during the recent Carnival of 2024.
The concentration of the impact in the South Zone and Downtown follows the distribution of Blocos - a collection of street bands that drew six million people over the carnival period in 2024, as estimated by the city of Rio de Janeiro. While the South Zone is the main tourist destination in the city year-round and is host to a multitude of Blocos, the Downtown area is arguably the true home of Carnival in Rio, boasting both the largest and most traditional Blocos and the official Carnival Parade.
Our neighborhood-level analysis sheds further light on the breakdown of the Carnival lift. The South Zone accounts for most of the city-wide lift, with Copacabana alone receiving almost 20% of the carnival lift on restaurants and bars, followed by Ipanema. The South Zone hosts the bulk of tourists in the city throughout the year and is also home to most of the restaurants and bars favored by visitors. But it is the downtown neighborhoods of Santa Teresa and Centro that see the largest local lift at 36% and 27%, respectively. These neighborhoods are less likely to receive international visitors outside of the Carnival period, especially in its predominantly commercial parts, hence the more pronounced Carnival lift there.
Impact on restaurants and bars during carnival in Rio
incremental lift in sales attributable to carnival