The travel agency Optimatours, based in Porto, appears in April 1999, although the parent company, a Optima, is older and connected only to tourist buses and rent a car, founded by your father, Joaquim Moreira.
Over the years, felt the need to have one more activity, also linked to tourism, since the rent a car business was having big crashes. Who says it is Paula Moreira, managing partner and director of the travel agency Optimatours, adding that the rent a car business was closed in 2002.
Regarding the travel agency, it was Paula Moreira who opened the activity, joining three more partners: the two sisters and a nephew, the other managing partner is her sister Susana.
A Optimatours, in addition to being associated with APAVT, belongs to the GEA management group. In the transport area, it is also a member of ARP.
Paula Moreira explains that the agency works not only in outgoing but also incoming, the most recent disappointment being the cancellation of a group from a European group for the end of the year, that would certainly “relieve” the bills for the year. At this point, with the increase in the spread of covid, the incoming is almost null.
As for own programming, is also practically nil, although and sometimes some programs are made to measure for a specific group and on request.
Noting that the year 2021 it was better than the previous one, but it didn't stop being weak, na generalidade.
We did not reach the proposed goals, nor in the number of customers, not in terms of volume of business, says the director of Optimatours, explaining that compared to the year of 2019, there was a break of approx. 75% in terms of business volume.
– And what about sales? 2021?
– The most sold was Portugal. But programs were also sold to Cape Verde, Caribbean and for several countries in Europe.
– How do you foresee the coming year??
– I hope next year goes better. We absolutely hope so. At least in outgoing because in incoming we still don't have any forecast.
– Optima Tours also operates in the tourist coach market. what fleet?
– We have 8 autocarros, a Mercedes minibus from 9 lugares e 1 Mercedes 300E hybrid car. what about work, in two years, little or nothing has been done, since we usually work with incoming operators.
– Considers that closing borders to 'stop' the spread of covid is the best?
– At this moment, the closing of borders is no longer justified, but we understand that, depending on the situation, some measures may have to be taken..
In my view, one of the problems we have is the non-vaccinated and I think that the measures should also involve penalizing these, says our interviewee who argues that one of the measures to be taken would be for the non-vaccinated to have to pay their expenses in the hospital if they are hospitalized with covid.
In terms of government support for tourism, Paula Moreira says that, at first, support were some and they helped the companies a lot.
– No entanto, at the moment they are practically non-existent. We pay practically the same amount in taxes and have not received any help since September 2021.
Ending this interview with the director of Optimatours, we wanted to know which, not current moment, are the biggest difficulties.
– Apenas, as most important, three: be able to sell with the conditions of Covid; get that after selling, these customers travel and return without problems; e, sobretudo, make ends meet, that increased against 2019. From salaries to everything related to fixed expenses such as electricity, water, Internet, phones and even consumables are more expensive!
Luís de Magalhães
