President of APAVT, Pedro Costa Ferreira, in an interview with Lusa, stated that," despite everything, travel agencies have survived. They are suffering, but they have survived," he added.

The official pointed out that, throughout 2020, companies in the sector registered business losses between 75 percent and 100 percent, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and that the estimate for January and February this year is for a drop of between 90 percent and 100 percent. However, he explained, travel agencies have managed to survive, mainly due to “three essential factors”, the positive results of tourism in 2019, which allowed them to accumulate liquidity, the use of indebtedness and government support, which has however “not been enough”.