Skift Take
The UK is the lifeline to Portugal’s tourism market, which was squashed by the pandemic and a five-month travel restriction. But the “green list” is created a mad dash by Britons to book trips to one of their preferred destinations.
Tom Lowry
The mailbox of a widely known hotel in the heart of Lisbon was bombarded with queries as quickly as Britain announced it was including the country on its travel “green list” this summertime.
Manuel Pinto, Mundial Hotel director, is over the moon that British holidaymakers, who are vital to Portugal’s tourist industry, will be able to return after a five-month travel ban, providing a much-needed increase to the struggling sector.
“I was delighted, not just on a personal level but for our country,” Pinto said, standing in Mundial’s rooftop bar, adding that British visitors had actually already scheduled around 4,000 room nights at the hotel this year.
Portugal was one of simply 12 nations and areas to be contributed to Britain’s “green list”, permitting Britons to visit the nation from May 17 without needing to quarantine, however still requiring 2 COVID-19 tests– one before returning to the UK and one on arrival into the UK.
Travel search site Skyscanner said there was a 616% increase in bookings to Portugal last week compared to the previous one, triggering airline companies to add capability to existing paths and, sometimes, launch news ones to satisfy demand.
Easyjet is including more flights to Portugal for this summer season, putting an extra 20,000 seats on routes consisting of London Gatwick to Faro and Lisbon over the May-October period.
Still, a tourism sector scarred by Britain’s last-minute modifications to take a trip guidelines last summertime and Christmas is braced for another turbulent year, and Portugal has yet to define precisely what rules would apply to Britons arriving.
Some executives said they were just too aware of how quickly the tide might turn again if coronavirus cases rose or federal governments altered their mind.
“I need to be cautious,” Chitra Stern, CEO of high-end hotel chain Martinhal, stated. “Individuals are still booking refundable rates.”
Other popular holiday locations for Britons like Spain and Cyprus are on the “amber list”, implying tourists would require to quarantine for 10 days upon return and take 2 tests.
Tourism plays a crucial role in Portugal, representing around 15% of gross domestic product in 2019. But it suffered its worst year considering that the mid-1980s in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic kept visitors away.
In 2020, only 460,000 Britons checked out Portugal, from 2 million the previous year.
Competitive Benefit
Eliderico Viegas, president of Algarve hotel association AHETA, said hotel owners knew that they were gaining from the reality that other countries dealt with greater limitations.
“Our main rivals have been excluded of the ‘green list’ for now,” he said. “It is a competitive benefit for us.”
Britain’s Thomas Cook said bookings had tripled compared to a week ago, with trips to Portugal accounting for a majority of that rise.
Airbnb bookings likewise began increasing and British airline easyJet stated UK bookings for Portugal rose after the statement, although it declined to put a figure on the rise.
Yet the high cost of COVID-19 testing and restricted accessibility of flights rising rates, integrated with the reality that the pandemic is still present, suggests the summertime season is tough to anticipate, even for Portugal.
“It’s not just a matter of a healing of conventional flying, it’s a complete improving,” travel consultant for Bain & Co, Geoffrey Weston, said. “That’s why this is so hard to judge.”
(Additional reporting by Sarah Young in London and Laurence Frost in Paris; Writing by Victoria Waldersee and Catarina Demony; Modifying by Ingrid Melander and Mike Collett-White)
This short article was written by Victoria Waldersee and Catarina Demony from Reuters and was lawfully licensed through the Market Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing concerns to [e-mail safeguarded]
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