Portuguese tourism faces “tens of millions of euros in losses” as cancellations ‘flood in’ following German ‘journey ban’

Portuguese tourism companies have described Germany’s decision to put Portugal on the “Red List” for safe travel – even if initially only for two weeks – as a “drama”.

Reservations worth millions of euros will be canceled; German vacationers who are already here are struggling to get home before the Tuesday deadline – and fear that this is just the beginning of a whole new nightmare.

The President of Turismo do Algarve, João Fernandes, told TSF Radio: “We know that Austria and Switzerland normally follow Germany’s measures and that this position of Germany, if it follows the United Kingdom, will have an impact on other markets” .

The decision, announced yesterday evening, has already provoked a cascade of cancellations, admits Pedro Costa Ferreira, president of the Portuguese travel and tourism association APAVT.

He described the situation as “a drama”: “There are hotels in the Algarve that have opened, hired workers, laid off workers, bought provisions, made beds to accommodate these tourists … and then suddenly someone suddenly says none comes and the money has to be returned … “

He stressed that things were far from getting worse for the sector this summer.

If the government does not keep the support measures in place, there will be a wave of corporate failures across the board, he predicts, stressing that most tourism-oriented companies are already “technically failing”. They are only strengthened by government subsidies.

The only way forward is to focus on “not dropping the support” – and making sure it is not returned, as no company will be able to take on more debt.

Meanwhile, German emigration is baring beaches and resorts.

Germany is usually Portugal’s “second largest tourism market”. In 2020, despite the pandemic, 1.75 million Germans went on vacation – an increase of 10,000 compared to the previous year.

Extremely painful about this new blow, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva declared the obvious: The German decision has ruthlessly overcome the entire premise of the European “Covid Digital Certificate” as a means to enable the free mobility of citizens and also completely ignored regional differences (which means that some areas of Portugal are much less affected by the high number of cases than others).

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com