Portugal is no longer seen abroad as a miracle in the fight against COVID-19 and the increase in the number of confirmed cases leads some countries to think twice before opening their borders to Portuguese travelers. Conversely, the concern also has consequences: foreigners seem to fear visiting Portugal.
«Either this is controlled quickly or the summer airs. We started well, but clearly the epidemic is going badly ”, says Pedro Lopes, manager of the Pestana Group in the Algarve. Cited by the newspaper Expresso, it indicates that the level of reservations by the Portuguese is positive, “but it is not enough”.
According to the official, the English reserves are still “very few” and if the quarantine for Portugal remains, the scenario could be even worse: “It means giving us a red card and the British market for us is fundamental.” Overall, the industry is waiting for air activity to resume so that the numbers can improve.
According to the same publication, hotels are seeing reservations canceled for July and August. The vote of confidence deposited is falling apart, but that also means that everything can change again just as quickly if the infection rate in Portugal improves.
“We were with some optimism for the second half, but hoteliers’ expectations were very low again,” added Cristina Siza Vieira, executive president of the Portuguese Hotel Association (AHP). To Expresso, he underlines that the situation that led to the enactment of exceptional measures for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area was “a bucket of cold water”, since “some smaller international events were being prepared in hotels for this summer, which are to suffer cancellations and abrupt falls ”.
In a domino logic, the wave of cancellations went beyond Lisbon, explains Cristina Siza Vieira: «It has contaminated Porto and the whole country, with hoteliers now signaling a feeling of hopelessness».
The problem extends to local accommodations, also with cancellations of international reservations for the next July. «We had many reservations for July and August that came from behind and are not being confirmed. Foreigners wait until the last minute to cancel, as the problem is not the unwillingness to come, but the uncertainty about whether they will have planes. This phase is critical for us and all the advances and setbacks that have been taking place may jeopardize the summer, ”says Eduardo Miranda, president of the Local Accommodation Association in Portugal (ALEP).
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