‘We will end the year with tourism revenues 50% below 2019’ – Siza Vieira

The government believes that Portugal will close 2021 with half the tourism revenue achieved in 2019, in what was a record year for the sector. Pedro Siza Vieira says this is the time to “lick wounds” and “ensure that the scars heal quickly”.

“Now that tourism is recovering, the possibility that we will more quickly reach the value of the product we had in 2019 and recover the trend will happen because we knew how to establish the sector as a trend,” the economy minister said this Thursday, during the 32nd Hospitality and Tourism Congress, which runs until tomorrow in Albufeira.

“We will reach the end of the year with tourism revenues 50% below the numbers registered in 2019. We have to lick wounds and ensure that the scars heal quickly,” Siza Vieira added.

In the Tourism Reactivation Plan (Plano Reativar o Turismo), the Portuguese government predicted that the sector’s revenue would reach €9.3 billion this year. In August, ECO’s calculations showed that, until June, the total amount collected was 75% below that figure. Nevertheless, according to what the minister said today, that goal should be achieved.

Pedro Siza Vieira also pointed out that international tourism revenues grew 60% in the last decade and that “this growth was very significant” for the country. “The investment we have made in tourism should be seen exactly in those terms,” he added.