The president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) hopes that the British government will not remove Portugal today from the so-called “green corridor”, which exempts English tourists from completing quarantine on their return to their country, after a holiday in Portuguese territory.
This possibility was suggested by the UK press, which stresses that the list of countries in the green, yellow and red corridors will be updated this Thursday by the British Government.
"We are awaiting the official decision," João Fernandes told reporters, on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the bathing season on Porto de Mós beach, in Lagos, with the minister of Environment.
If this change takes place, «it is evident that it will have a very significant impact on the Algarve», said the president of RTA.
«We had a very robust and growing demand for the coming weeks, from the British market, with flights increasing their capacity, with hotel reservations consolidating since May 17», when Portugal (Algarve included) was placed on the green list of Brits.
Therefore, stressed João Fernandes, if the situation changes, “it would obviously be a serious setback, as this decision takes three weeks to take effect”.
However, the responsible for Tourism of the Algarve maintains some hope, revealing that «the ECDC [European Center for Disease Control and Prevention] data has just come out, placing us among the three countries in Europe with the lowest incidence in the last 14 days for 100 inhabitants».
Given these data, "there is no reason for this risk review by the British" to remove our country from the list of safe countries to travel.
As for the possible risks that British tourists may pose to the Portuguese, in terms of contagion from Covid-19, João Fernandes recalled that «a British tourist, before coming to Portugal, must take the PCR test», at the same time as “the British are, in the European context, the people with the most advanced vaccination process”.
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