Turismo de Portugal announced today the cancellation of its presence in the Lisbon Tourism Exchange (BTL), as well as the regional tourism structures of the continent, Azores and Madeira and seven other associations in the sector.
According to a statement to which the Lusa agency had access, those entities “understand that, taking into account the latest recommendations of the Directorate-General for Health regarding the organization of major events and considering all the conditions, the conditions are not met to maintain its participation in BTL 2020 on the date scheduled for its realization, either through its own stand or through the various events initially scheduled “.
In the text, Turismo de Portugal stresses, however, that “aware of the importance” of the Lisbon Tourism Exchange – scheduled for 11-15 of this month – “and considering the fact that this is the meeting point between many buyers and suppliers of the sector, many international “, the 15 signatory entities of the communiqué” are making the best efforts to maintain some of the actions foreseen in digital format, without prejudice to the possibility that the event may take place on another date if so decided “.
In addition to Turismo de Portugal, the document signs the Regional Secretariat for Energy, Environment and Tourism of the Azores and its Madeira Tourism and Culture counterpart, in addition to the regional tourism entities of the Algarve, Alentejo, Central Portugal, Region of Lisbon and Porto and North of Portugal.
The statement also includes the Azores Tourism Association, Promotion Association of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, Algarve Tourism Association, Alentejo Regional Tourism Promotion Agency, Lisbon Tourism Association – Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Regional Tourism Promotion Agency of the Centro de Portugal and the Tourism Innovation Center (NEST).
Portugal has yet another confirmed case of Covid-19, bringing the number of confirmed cases to six, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) revealed today.
The Covid-19 outbreak, detected in December in China, and which can cause respiratory infections such as pneumonia, caused about 3,200 deaths and infected more than 94,000 people in 78 countries, including five in Portugal.
Of the infected people, about 50,000 recovered.
In addition to 2,983 dead in China, there are fatalities in Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand, the United States and the Philippines.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak as an international public health emergency and increased the risk to “very high”.
I can personal see events cancelled in Madeira when the virus gets here, Flower Festival being one of the events that is not so far away, and people from all over Europe come to this event which is the largest of the year. This will be a huge problem for tourism, which we are all ready seeing around the world.