The Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) asked the government on Saturday to take urgent measures to support the sector, in particular the maintenance lay off It was in place until May, after Germany placed Portugal on the “red list”.
In a statement, APAVT stated that “the recent decision by the German government regarding the travel of its citizens to Portugal, following the country’s exit from the UK Green List, together with the uncertainty caused by the decline in uneasiness and its impact on Portuguese holidays, deals a fatal blow to the outlook for the beginning of the tourism recovery as a whole “.
For this reason, the association asserts that “the urgent need for new support to prevent the bankruptcy of an entire sector” is imperative.
“Portugal is, in practice, currently unable to receive tourists from various markets, including the two largest markets in terms of overnight accommodations, and the first and third in terms of tourist revenue, the United Kingdom and Germany, creating a vast desert in the panorama of the national show and ruling out any possibility of recovery for travel agencies specializing in domestic tourism,” says APAVT.
The association asserts that “from the point of view of tour operators and agencies dedicated to leisure tourism, the scenario is equally bleak, with expectations of a return to work failing in this high summer season” and that “so-called business tourism remains on par.”
“In the short term, the economic and social costs of bankruptcies, including the cost of unemployment benefits, will be much greater than investing in support measures such as lay off In the medium term, the cost will be immeasurably higher, since the impossibility of restoring a sector that is a contribution of more than 10% of national GDP will have an impact that extends to the entire national economy,” says APAVT.
If there are no new support measures, there is a risk that “the non-refundable support will turn into an illusion, with the general bankruptcy of the national tourism offer, which makes the economic recovery of the country impossible, as well as the very high costs in unemployment benefits”, said the President of the Association, Pedro Costa Ferreira, in the statement.
“Red List”
Health authorities in Germany have put Portugal on the “red list”, a decision that will come into effect from midnight on Tuesday and will require all travelers from Portuguese territory to quarantine for 14 days.
Portugal is classified as a diverse region [do SARS-CoV-2] A concern initially for two weeks,” says the decision of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s federal health agency, adding that “an extension” of this period is “possible.”
A 14-day quarantine period becomes mandatory, even with the presentation of a negative test, proof of full vaccination, or proof of immunity. It is also necessary for non-German foreigners to have a digital record before entering the country.
The origin of the decision will be the increase in the infection rate in Portugal, which records 137.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The current number of infected people exceeds 30,000.
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed at least 3,903,064 victims worldwide, resulting in more than 179,931,620 officially diagnosed cases, according to a balance achieved by AFP.
In Portugal, 17,081 people have died and 871,483 cases have been confirmed, according to the latest bulletin of the Directorate General of Health.
The respiratory disease is caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which was discovered in late 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
