“Tourists know the number of active cases that we have in Madeira and many of those who are here, at the moment, do not understand the reason for leaving the ‘green list’”, explains the director of the RIU Palace Madeira, Alexandra Freitas, who adds that “many will stop traveling not because they feel insecure, but because they have to go back to confinement.”
In accordance with the care and protocols assumed by the region, in general, and by the hotel unit, in particular, with many of the measures implemented here not being complied with in the United Kingdom, the responsible states that the tourists who are in the hotel have reacted negatively to the decision taken by the Boris Johnson government.
“Now we have to wait to see the real consequences of Portugal’s departure from the ‘green list’, which will certainly be big for Madeira”, he exalted. Alexandra Freitas states that, so far, there has not been a large number of cancellations, and “the entries for today have not changed, but in the coming days we will feel this change in the market.”
It will be during the next few weeks that it will be possible to observe how much the passage of Portugal, along with the autonomous regions, to the ‘amber list’ will affect Madeira as a destination. The director of the RIU unit in the region believes that, as the move to the ‘amber list’ could be temporary, with reassessment every three weeks, “we believe that customers can choose to postpone and not cancel the vacation, as both the cancellation and the postponement is free.”
For RIU Palace Madeira, the main outbound market is the German one. However, with the German operation starting only for the week, “at this moment 60% of our occupation belongs to the British market”, so the relegation of Portugal to travel in this market “affects us a lot.” At the moment, the average age of British guests is “younger”, so “having to confine themselves on the way back is equivalent to 10 days of holiday they miss, or it could put their job at risk.”