Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), Elidérico Viegas, indicated that confidence in the domestic market “results from very favourable behaviour”, which already translates into the number of reservations.


“Reservations of national tourists are rising every day in hotels and in the Algarve developments that have reopened, which gives us some confidence to believe in some recovery this year,” he said.


The official stressed that the opening of accommodation units in the Algarve, closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is taking place “at a good pace, but in phases”, with an estimated 60 percent in the middle of the month and the rest in the first week of July.


“In the units that reopened there is growth, in the current context, hence we are confident, because domestic tourism has always been the most numerous, both in number of people and overnight stays, in the month of August”, he stressed.


According to Elidérico Viegas, the southernmost region of Portugal “will benefit from the fact that many Portuguese people decide not to take a holiday abroad and will certainly have the Algarve as their natural destination”.


“Therefore, we are confident that in relation to domestic tourism there will be very favourable behaviour”, he said.