Portugal's removal from the German list that prevented travelers from entering the country without quarantine it is “good news”, but tour operators will take time to recover activity, considered today the president of the Algarve Tourism Board.
"Nevertheless, this is good news, it allows non-essential flights to be carried out from Germany and is exempt from quarantine for those who have completed vaccination, have immunity certificate, or who undergo a PCR or antigen test on their return" , said the president of the Algarve Tourism Region, João Fernandes, to Lusa agency.
In reaction to the decision announced on Monday by Germany to remove Portugal from the list of countries with entry bans due to the high prevalence of the Delta strain of the Covid-19 virus, João Fernandes recalled that, before the imposition of these limitations on travel, they were “ 311 flights are planned for July from Germany”, but warned that these numbers will not be reset immediately.
“It would correspond to more than 56.000 airplane seats. A large part of these operations were cancelled, tour operators and airlines were, with the announcement of the 25th, demobilizing their operations, and, therefore, it will be necessary to resume all this dynamic”, he argued.
João Fernandes stressed that the image of Portugal, after the announcement that imposed the restrictions, “has suffered a major setback” and now it is necessary to “see how it is possible to capture this demand again”, in the face of “great distrust from the consumers themselves in relation to decisions that are changed at every moment and that often leave travelers at their destination having to anticipate their return”.
“And this whole process, contrary to what would be expected with the digital certificate, is unfortunately hampering what would be an opening expected by everyone” in the regional tourism sector, he lamented.
João Fernandes said he hopes that "there will be a stabilization of the rules based on the [digital] certificate that was agreed by the Member States of the European Union" and that its use is already more normalized after the main summer months and in the months of greater demand from the German market to the Algarve.
“The greatest demand on the German market is in September and October, so in this chapter there is also a very important opportunity to take advantage of,” he added.
João Fernandes also took the opportunity to highlight the importance for the Algarve region and tourism of the return, on 7 November, of the MotoGP World Championship to the Algarve International Circuit (in replacement of the canceled Australian Grand Prix), after having already hosted the Grand Prix of Portugal in April.
“Today we had good news, the announcement of the Algarve MotoGP Grand Prix in November, which is a particularly important time to mitigate seasonality”, said João Fernandes, stressing that the decision of the World Cup organizers “is also a recognition of quality of the track and of the organization”.
"It will certainly happen at a time when vaccination is very advanced and let us all hope that the presence of a mass public is allowed, which would be very important for the regional economy and the country as a whole in terms of image", he said, adding that it is also “an opportunity” for the Portuguese to cherish the driver Miguel Oliveira, the national representative in the main discipline of speed motorcycling.
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