The announcement came by British Transport Minister Grant Shapps at the end of the day: for now, Portugal remains on the list of safe countries, the so-called air corridor. Thus, Britons traveling to Portugal are not subject to a 14-day quarantine period on their return home. “We continue to keep the air corridor list under constant review and we will not hesitate to remove countries if necessary. However, today there are no new additions or deletions from the list ”, wrote the Minister of Transport on the social network Twitter.
In the same message, tourists were also reminded that the list of ‘safe’ countries is changing rapidly. “Those who go on vacation should remember that countries that need a 14-day quarantine period can and do change with little notice.”
Grant Shapps’s revelation came a few hours after statements by Health Minister Matt Hancock, who told Sky News earlier in the morning that a decision would only be made on Friday. More aligned are the two members of the British Government in the notices to travelers. “People should look at the numbers and only travel if they are prepared to be quarantined,” warned Hancock.
However, tourists from Wales will need quarantine on their return home, as the country’s authorities have decided to remove Mainland Portugal from the air corridor. At the end of this Thursday, the BBC advanced that Scotland it could follow the same path, also removing Portugal from the list of countries in the air corridor.
In the last few days, the British press realized that Portugal could be excluded from the air corridor, taking into account the infection rate of 22.9 new cases per hundred thousand inhabitants over seven days, a value above the Kingdom’s metric of 20 Kingdom considered safe.
On the positive side, fragility
For Isabel Tavares, marketing director for hospitality at Sonae Capital, the British interest in the Algarve, “what was very positive, now becomes fragile”. Even before the announcement that the United Kingdom would keep Portugal on the list was made, Isabel Tavares explained to the DV that the uncertainty about the country’s continuity in the list generated some apprehension. “We clearly feel the same as the other operators in the Algarve, which is discomfort and we think that above all it creates instability.”
As Sonae Capital owns hotels like Aqualuz Lagos, Isabel Tavares details that a change in the behavior of guests has been felt over the past few days. “It is the concern and instability in relation to tomorrow’s uncertainty, to start anticipating and changing their stay plans, this is one of the major disadvantages.”
“The country has always been very stable in reacting to the situation, we managed to react in a relatively agile and fast way. We were, in the hotel business, from the beginning always trying to ensure that the people who traveled and who were with us were safe, we made this investment and we continue to do it ”, he explains. “I think this news, from ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ [dos corredores], create a lot of instability and people today to continue traveling need some calm and peace of mind and feel that they are safe. ”
The director of marketing for hospitality at Sonae Capital also considers that what can be seen as a “communication problem” could “bring great disadvantages for the sector”.
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