Madeira has its ‘best August ever’ for tourism

  • Lusa
  • 18 October 2021

The figures are "higher than any August in the history of tourism in Madeira" and surpass what were considered the best results in the sector, recorded in 2017 and 2019.

Madeira had “the best August ever” in its tourism history, which shows the beginning of a new cycle after the pandemic, the president of the regional government said on Monday.

“The indicators on one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic, tourism, are extremely positive,” said Miguel Albuquerque.

The figures are “higher than any August in the history of tourism in Madeira” and surpass what were considered the best results in the sector, recorded in 2017 and 2019.

“A new cycle has already begun of economic and social recovery” in this region.

Albuquerque pointed out that there were increases in the “price of Revpar (earnings per hotel room) relative to 2019, in the order of 20 to 23%”.

Without pointing out numbers, he emphasized that there were also increases in occupancy and total income, which, in his view, “means that the strategy adopted to safeguard and make the region credible as a safe destination is having its effects in this recovery.”

“It also means that what was adopted by businessmen linked to the sector, not to make price decreases was extremely significant and important,” he added.

He also stressed that the regional government will “continue to reduce the tax burden for companies in terms of Corporate Income Tax (IRC) and continue to adopt the tax differential, especially for the first brackets of Personal Income Tax (IRS)”, which will be reflected in the next Regional Budget for 2022, to be presented.

He also announced that, to cope with the “exponential” increase in fuel prices, Madeira will “accompany the decrease in the ISP tax (Tax on Oil Products)” and “adopt the differential”, which has, since 2018, been in the order of -7% for petrol and -9% for diesel, in relation to mainland prices.

Miguel Albuquerque said that “all the paths that will be included in the next Budget of the region aim to maintain economic dynamism, leadership in innovation, investment, support for entrepreneurship and business.

“We here have no leftist complex. We here refute the path of impoverishment to which Portugal is consigned,” he said, arguing that the region has “a different recipe” from that of the mainland government.

Madeira “has an opposite path” and will “continue to focus on the business fabric, on public and private investment, on entrepreneurship, on the qualification and education of new generations”, insisting on the importance of digitalisation, computing, creation of qualified jobs and development.