The Clean & Safe seal, launched by Turismo de Portugal two months ago to recognise companies that comply with sanitary guidelines to avoid contamination of spaces with the covid-19 will soon be extended to the subsectors of events and congresses and spectacle venues and also to the spas.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, valued the success of the initiative, which recently led to the attribution to Portugal of the Safe Travel seal by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), for the function of “instigate confidence”.

For Rita Marques, the seal guarantees, on the one hand, that all tourism subsectors have a health security protocol in place and that the rules are known to everyone, instilling confidence in the tourist, and on the other hand, it allows training for all workers.

“Right now, there are already more than 20 thousand people who have been trained in these health safety protocols. It has been a success”, she said, referring that this is “the greatest ambassador” of Portuguese tourism because the companies make an effort to comply with the best health safety practices and the consumer, upon seeing the seal, concluding that it is safer.

Within the scope of this protocol, Turismo de Portugal conducts random audits, having so far identified three situations in which the seal was removed “because it was considered that the protocol was not being complied with”, she said.

In parallel, according to Rita Marques, the evaluations that will result from customer feedback on the new website (portugalcleanandsafe.com), and which has already counted more than 8 thousand hits in just two weeks of operation, may also give rise to audits.

“On the platform, we have not yet registered any unusual situation that would give rise to an audit. However, customers are expected to evaluate the spaces and score the space with green, red or yellow. With three reds, the need for an audit is immediately triggered. If there are a lot of yellows, naturally, we will also have to do the same”, she explained.

"The evaluation system outlined is clearly robust," she added.

Free of charge, the Clean & Safe seal remains valid until 30 April, 2021.