Opening borders: the impact on tourism

Finally, many borders have been officially opened. This shows that the worst pandemic we have faced in the last hundred years is coming ever closer to an end – or so we hope. With the opening of the borders, tourism is in a new and important phase: that of recovery. After all reservations were cancelled for April, May and many for June, in July the bet is re-warming the sector and a gradual return of visitors.

The return of the “new normal” has its restrictions, but tourism, which was one of the sectors most affected, is beginning to see results with the reopening. Even before this happened, we could already find tourists coming from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Now, our Spanish neighbours are already betting on the deconfinement and on an exchange of visitors between the Iberian Peninsula, which usually happens all year round.

At this “post-pandemic” moment, car trips gain more fans, which favours the exchange of tourism between the two countries. And, just as we speak in another text, tourists are looking for destinations with few people and free cancellation policies, after all, at this unstable moment, it is important to be safe and gain more time until they decide. As in previous years, the Algarve is still the favourite region for Spaniards looking for a beach – but this time, the proposal is to take pleasure away from large centres and agglomerations.

Have you missed the text we’re talking about domestic tourism? See here.

Of the 15 countries whose epidemiological situation of covid-19 is considered satisfactory, the United States and Brazil are not included. This directly influences tourism in Portugal, since many of the visitors we receive come from these countries. But this is not a moment of discouragement. Little by little we notice a significant improvement in the numbers of reservations, which shows that the opening of the borders will make the summer even hotter and livelier in several sectors.

With tourists coming from many European Union countries, besides Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, and Uruguay, among others, we can consider that the opening of borders already brings a very positive and essential impact for tourism, which is officially opened its doors for domestic and foreign visitors.