In an open letter, Gloria Guevara, World Travel & Tourism Council President & CEO, shares the dismay and severe disappointment of thousands of British holidaymakers and the Travel & Tourism sector as Portugal once again goes back on the quarantine list.
Taking Portugal and Hungary off the exception list has left families and in a race against time to find flights and get home to avoid going into 14-days of isolation or cancel their already made plans.
This depressingly familiar situation is a major body blow to consumer confidence to travel. For while Madeira and the Azores will be excluded from the quarantine list under the government’s new ‘island policy’, it will come as little comfort to the vast majority of holidaymakers, and the embattled Travel & Tourism sector, which has seen the 2020 summer holiday season effectively crushed.
- Madeira increases hiking access charges to fund sustainable tourism measures
- Portugal calls in National Guard as EU border checks overwhelm Lisbon airport
- National strike to hit travel sector across Portugal on 11 December
All of this chaos could be avoided if only the government took decisive action to ditch damaging and disruptive quarantines in favour of a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective airport test and trace programme. Until then, the disruption will continue, and the economic recovery will become ever harder to restart.
