The European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, the Portuguese Elisa Ferreira, called for the use of billions of euros of European funds to recover and transform tourism, very affected by Covid-19, but defended the crucial role of the sector in Portugal.
– I leave you with one last challenge, don't waste time. With these opportunities comes the responsibility. You have already demonstrated that you can find excellent projects, said in the ‘Euragora videoconference: Tourism in times of Covid-19 ’, organized by Lusa news agencies (portuguesa) and Efe (Spanish).
The Commissioner considered tourism to be a key economic sector in Europe, that has a crucial role in Portugal and Spain.
– The Covid-19 crisis has shown very clearly that we must ensure and strengthen the resilience of all economic sectors, and also tourism, said Elisa Ferreira on the second and last day of the virtual forum.
The European Commissioner mentioned three challenges for the tourism sector and ensured that the Structural Funds can help achieve these objectives.. They are, o the recovery of the negative social and economic effects of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, support for diversification with a view to helping tourism in rural areas, who have desertification and depopulation problems, and the ecological and digital transition, where tourism has the opportunity to lead the way.
Tourism represents about 10% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) European Union and employs around 27 milhões de pessoas (12% of the workforce).
