Tourism “set back by 10 years”

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques has told a national newspaper that tourism in Portugal has been set back by 10 years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

An interview with Expresso revealed that Portugal’s tourism industry lost a massive €7.7Bn in revenues and in terms of capital income, the country has lost 10 years.
However, Rita Marques believes that Portugal will recover by 2023 and the quality of its offer will increase.
The minister said that Portugal’s tourism industry saw a 56% tumble in revenues and expressed the hope that by 2022 or 2023 it would recover to the kind of revenues seen in 2019, but that it would be necessary to reposition Portugal as a tourism destination.
Rita Marques said that measures already announced to support the industry, which include an extra €750-900 million package and other measures aimed to protect jobs and outlined on the site Apoiar.pt.
“At the moment the Ministry of the Economy is also working on a raft of measures to inject capital into companies which have been seriously undercapitalised because of the pandemic,” she said.
She added that the vaccine offered a lifeline and expressed the hope that by Easter, Portugal would begin to see an increased flow of tourists as people gained more confidence to travel because of it.
In addition, the government has two measures which are included in the State Budget – IVAucher and Visitar Muito por Pouco (See a lot for Less) which offer a range of experiences and services with discounts which was suspended because of the pandemic, but will be restarted.
Rita Marques said that the airline TAP had been absolutely fundamental, especially for long-course destinations such as Brazil, Africa and the United States.
The data shows that 45% of all passengers who land in Portugal do so on TAP flights, which are also essential for the Azores and Madeira, both for the national and international markets.
“I want to believe that in the future TAP will continue to help and support the strategy that we have designed for tourism, irrespective of its restructuring. A strong TAP is vital for Portuguese tourism,” said the minister.