Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Regional Tourism Entity of the Lisbon Region, Victor Costa, considered that the measure that facilitates the entry of passengers by air into Portugal, which came into force on 7 February, "is quite important" and will " contribute to entering a phase of tourism recovery”, but noted that, after two years “of a very hard pandemic”, there is still “a long and difficult phase” to go through.

“Our view is that this measure is very positive. In fact, over this two-year period we noticed that whenever there is a relief from restrictive measures, there is a positive response from demand”, he underlined.

Victor Costa stated that Lisbon remains an attractive destination, where most tourists come for leisure, so it is expected that this segment will recover, as of March, which is in line with the expectations already revealed by hoteliers.

However, there is another market segment that is also important in the region that “needs more predictability and more time to respond”, which is the organisation of congresses and professional meetings, which “will take longer to recover”.

“Therefore, our position is actually optimistic, although this cannot make us forget the problems, which are, namely, how companies will emerge from this crisis, which is a big crisis. There are measures that are being taken and others that have been taken to help, but now we are reaching a stage in which the concrete reality of the business will be seen, which can dictate the survival or not of many companies, and, therefore, this is a difficult phase”, he said.