All we needed now was for the SEF to go on strike…

The pre-announcement of strikes by SEF employees at national airports, delivered by the Union of Investigative Inspectors, Inspection and Borders (SIIFF) to the Government, constitutes an obvious economic threat against Portugal, at the very moment when the recovery of tourism is taking its first steps in this new cycle of the pandemic crisis, with the main issuing markets with “eyes on” in our country, considers the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) in a statement sent to our editorial staff.

Aliás, under this pre-announcement of strike by SEF employees, Pedro Costa Ferreira, APAVT president comments that the simple pre-announcement of a strike at airports in the Azores, Madeira, Faro or Lisbon, is already raising many questions from the main foreign operators, namely from the British market, which is considered as one of the lifeline in our activity.

It should also be noted that for a limited time and schedule, it is a threat that causes distrust of the sending markets to Portugal and each day that passes without being called upon, will produce irrecoverable negative effects on tourist reserves.

Not wanting to give an opinion on the reasons for the strike and its eventual justice, APAVT can only call for the rapid resolution of the conflict, without what everyone, the disputed parties and the entire Tourist Country and National economy, will lose.

More than a year after the start of the pandemic Covid19, with all companies in the sector practically paralyzed, it is unqualified to take advantage of this nature.

APAVT states that it does not question the reasons, but warns of the dire consequences, that go beyond a professional class to reach the tourism sector as a whole and, as such, the economy of Portugal.