Currently, Brazilians sometimes wait more than three months to get the face-to-face interview with U.S. officials required to get a non-resident visa. The Obama initiative calls for dropping that waiting period to 21 days in most cases. And they can have those interviews in only four cities, which often requires an expensive trip in itself.

As a result, many Brazilians simply ignore the U.S. and travel elsewhere, said Neil Emerson, vice president of Hotelbeds, which sells travel services to Brazilian travel agents. Booking groups is nearly impossible, said other travel companies.

The changes ordered Thursday by Obama could be obvious by spring, said Rolando Aedo, senior vice president of marketing for Miami-Dade’s public-private tourism promotion agency. Unlike Europeans, who plan trips to the U.S. months in advance, Brazilians are likely to book journeys to the U.S. much closer to the time of travel. The change comes in time to snag the U.S. summer months, a popular travel time for Brazilians.

More than 555,000 Brazilians visited Miami-Dade in 2010, with some 300,000 Brazilian overnight visitors to Broward County. In 2011, those numbers increased by 15 percent during the first nine months of the year in Miami-Dade and climbed an estimated 50 percent in Broward County.

For William Talbert, CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau and chair of an industry effort on increasing tourism from Brazil, the ultimate goal is to get Brazil on the list of “visa waiver” countries whose citizens can apply for U.S. visitor visas online. Such a change is expected to double Brazilian visitorship to Miami-Dade within a year, Talbert said.

Currently 36 countries are on the U.S. visa waiver list. They include South Korea and Slovenia but none in Latin America.

Adding Brazil to that list could only be good news for hotels like the W South Beach, where Brazilians make up the No. 1 source of foreign visitors, said general manager George Cozonis.

“We know for every traveler that is able to get a visa many who are not,’’ he said. “Brazilians are very affluent. Their per diem spending is significant. It’s a country of 200 million people, and 40 million of them are affluent and can afford to travel. Miami and New York are their top two destinations. Our area would benefit.’’

Thursday’s executive order aims to expand the visa waiver program while maintaining current security standards; boost non-immigrant visa processing capacity in China and Brazil by 40 percent this year; direct an interagency task force to develop recommendations for a National Travel and Tourism Strategy, including promoting national parks and other sites.

The president also appointed a new group of executives to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, including Olga Ramudo, president and CEO of Express Travel in Miami-Dade.

Miami Herald economy writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report, which also used material from The Associated Press.

To read more, visit www.miamiherald.com.