Best estimates point to tourism growth of 20 – 30% in 2021

The Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, has said that the “best estimates” for national tourism until the end of 2021 point to a “growth of 20 to 30%,” compared to 2020.

Responding to a question about estimates for tourism in Portugal in 2021, asked during a ‘webinar’ for journalists on the digital green certificate, Rita Marques indicated that the “best estimates [of the Government] are in line with the estimates of international organisations.”

“Most international organisations say that if vaccination continues to develop at a reasonable speed in Europe, we will probably end 2021 with a growth of 20 to 30% when compared to 2020,” she pointed out.

Regarding the digital pass proposed by the European Commission, the Secretary of State pointed out that “we can travel today without any certificate”.

This is because the purpose of the certificate “is only to ensure that European countries harmonise their strategies, so that there is no quarantine or testing”, she justified.

In this sense, the governor recalled that “some member states already have technological solutions that are very much in line with the digital green certificate” and gave the example of the island of Madeira, in Portugal.

“We have a fully operable solution in Madeira. If we travel there, we are asked to present, prior to the trip, a certificate saying that we have a negative test, that we are immune or that we have been vaccinated,” she said.

As “we cannot wait until the Commission’s documentation is complete to start working, what Portugal has advocated is that each member state should work immediately” to have an alternative technological solution while the Commission’s proposal is not ready.

As soon as the European Commission regulation “is ready and is fully known,” Rita Marques calls on member states to “align and adapt as much as possible” the solutions underway in their countries with the “purposes proposed” by Brussels.

“So, we cannot wait for June. We need to work as soon as possible,” she urged.

Rita Marques participated today in a ‘webinar’ for journalists, entitled “Green Digital Certificate: passport to normality?”, organised by the European Parliament in Portugal and in which also participated the European Commission’s Director-General for Justice and Consumers, Salla Saastamoinen, and MEPs Fernando Aguilar and Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar.