Portugal counts the cost of UK's air bridge snub
The UK’s snubbing of Portugal, which has a lower infection rate than other countries given the green light by the Foreign Office, is considered something of a cruel joke over here. Certainly no-one I spoke to yesterday about the crippling effects of being put on the British red list was laughing.
Jorge Beldade, Director of Operations at Minor Hotels in the Algarve, responsible for Europe’s first Anantara, told me: “Because of the disproportionately bad publicity this has brought us, due to a few, controlled, clusters far away in Lisbon, we have had an enormous amount of cancellations.” The hotel, whose occupancy is normally around 45 per cent British, is currently seeing three per cent of bookings from that market, and has been forced to postpone its re-opening from July 1 to July 20.
At family-friendly Martinhal, with hotels in Cascais and the western Algarve, it is a similar story, although both properties are now open. “Cancellations have increased,” owner Chitra Stern explained, “and new enquiries have decreased. We are looking at an occupancy fluctuating between 10 per cent and 20 per cent right now with a huge drop in our strong British market. But the ones who have decided to come feel comfortable in their private pool villas and the outdoor activities, from surfing to hiking, that Portugal excels in.”
In the eastern Algarve, at the Instagrammable Farmhouse of the Palms, owner Frank Persyn told me he had welcomed several English guests who had flown via Seville and rented a car in order to avoid quarantining on the way home, but others who flew in to Faro feeling the pleasure of being there outweighed the pain of incarceration back in Britain. As a small B&B with just seven suites, his guests are normally individuals making their own travel arrangements rather than brought by tour operators. The UK traffic light list has, he said, had no impact on his bookings. It is a hugely different story for the bigger hotels or chains, like the ones above, which populate the Algarve and are mainly dependent on tour operator bookings.
Jules Maury of Scott Dunn explained: “As a tour operator, we are obliged to follow the UK Government and FCO guidelines when advising our guests. Until the FCO advice for travel to Portugal changes from advising against all but essential travel to this country, we cannot make bookings for our guests, even though we have enquiries for this destination. We’re eagerly awaiting any changes in the advice for countries we know our guests want to travel to, such as Portugal.”
And of course, it is not just hotels that are suffering. A driver for a taxi company in normally affluent Almancil told me yesterday: “At the moment I am clocking off after a ten-hour shift with an average of 20 euros in my pocket – and that is a good day.”
Rita Soares from wine specialists Garrafeira Soares, whose 26 shops across the Algarve have long catered to the British market, was visibly upset as she told me that in their flagship store they currently only one saleswoman, as opposed to the normal eight, and barely any customers.
Equally worried for the future was Stella Goldmann, owner of Porches Pottery, a landmark in the region for its hand-painted home ware. Sales are down by more than 50 per cent compared to last year, she said.
With yesterdays figures of 287 new cases (mainly in the areas locked down surrounding Lisbon) and nine deaths (compared to the UK’s 352 new cases and 16 deaths; bringing the total of deaths in Portugal to 1,629 against the UK’s 44,391) a definite decrease on the spike of the previous few weeks, it is hoped that the illogical banning of holidays to Portugal is soon rectified.
For as Sean Moriarty, CEO of the Algarve’s Quinta do Lago, said: ‘’We have the weather, the safety measures and the lifestyle, now we just need the guests."
