The pandemic situation in the country’s capital is hampering the resumption of tourism in the Region.
At issue is the fact that there is no separation between the issuing markets between the different realities that occur in Mainland Portugal and in the Autonomous Regions.
Example of ‘paying the righteous for the sinner’
“We have already been harmed” admitted this morning the President of the Regional Government, pointing out the example of the “Danish operation” planned for Porto Santo and that “at this moment it is canceled exactly by the circumstances of Portugal [ser visto num todo]”.
The fault, says Miguel Albuquerque, is that “all airports in Portugal are inserted in the situation that is happening in Lisbon”, where the growing number of people infected with the covid-19 motivates greater concerns regarding the epidemiological situation that occurs in the capital of the parents.
To try to prevent him from ‘paying the righteous for the sinner’, Albuquerque revealed that steps have already been taken with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try to reverse the generalized image of the national territory.
“Just yesterday, does the secretary [do Turismo], either the deputies to the Assembly of the Republic, contacted the Minister of Foreign Affairs to contact the respective embassies in order to make the difference between the airports ”, thus seeking to underline the favorable position of the Region in the face of the pandemic, remembering that the airports Madeira and Porto Santo “are areas of zero covid” that end up being harmed by what is happening in the capital.
Albuquerque hopes that the “diplomatic steps” will help to alleviate the bad image that results from the pandemic situation that persists in Lisbon.
The problem is that “everything is decided in Lisbon and Madeira and the Azores, in certain circumstances, generally do not exist”, he denounced. Reality aggravated by those who look at the country as a whole. Hence the attempt to try to accentuate Madeira’s specificity.
On the sidelines of the visit to the unit that is being set up next to the Arrivals Terminal of Madeira International Airport Cristiano Ronaldo, where from July 1st, screening (tests) and epidemiological surveillance will take place for all disembarked passengers, Miguel Albuquerque recalled the importance of resuming international calls, but with caution.
“We want maximum operations but always with control”, he stressed.
He ensures that the control capacity on arrival “at the moment is estimated at around 11 thousand passengers per week, without any problem”, he said.
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