The foreign minister acknowledges that the Covid certification, which is being negotiated between member states, will not save tourism this year. “2021 will not be a year of strong tourism recovery,” says Augusto Santos Silva. EFE News Agency. “We expect some recovery, but there is still a long way to go from our values in 2019.”
However, the Covid certification – which will make it possible to determine whether European citizens have already been vaccinated, whether they have been vaccinated or tested negative for the disease in the past few days – will “facilitate circulation among European countries”, “the negative impact of the epidemic on tourism” “.
“We expect to end the negotiations during the month of May, so that the certificate will be operational at the beginning of the summer,” says Augusto Santos Silva, as Portugal is depositing the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Covid-19: The government presents an “ambitious plan” to resume tourism in the coming days
In this interview with the Spanish agency, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also rejected that this document contains any kind of discrimination, “because this certificate is not a passport – the certificate is not a prerequisite for mobility, people can move even without the certificate.”
However, everyone who has this document guarantees, and with appropriate conditions, that he “shall not be subject to quarantine or exceptional measures.”
Regarding British tourism, Santos Silva says there have been contacts with the UK to “manage the summer with the care the health situation requires,” despite “taking advantage of the fact that the situation is improving”.
Santos Silva confirms that Covid will remain special for the rest of the year. “We haven’t closed the page on the epidemic yet, so we have to be very careful, very gradual,” the minister said.
