Lisbon gives greenlight to UK tourists ahead of Champions League final

LISBON: British tourists will be able to visit Portugal from tomorrow, after Lisbon lifted restrictions introduced in January to check the spread of Covid-19, the government said.

Lisbon’s move came after London had placed Portugal on its “green list” of countries to visit without having to self-isolate on returning home.

Portugal said Britons could visit as long as they could show a negative PCR test result for Covid-19 at most 72 hours before boarding the plane.

From tomorrow, extra flights will be put on for tourists, many of them to Faro, the main town in the southern Algarve region and a popular holiday destination, tourism minister Rita Mendes said.

Tourists from Britain are “an important market for Portugal”, she added, with two million Brits making the trip in 2019 before the pandemic hit.

The country is traditionally a top summer destination for British holidaymakers.

An added attraction is that the northern city of Porto will host the May 29 Champions League final between Manchester City and English Premier League rivals Chelsea.

Thousands of English football fans can be expected to descend on the venue, although governing body UEFA have to date only confirmed that up to 6,000 tickets will be made available to each club.

The final capacity limit at Porto’s Estadio do Dragao has yet to be fixed.

Portugal and Britain currently have two of the lowest virus rates in Europe.

The return of tourism follows a disastrous year for the sector in 2020 and is key to the country’s economic recovery.

Last year tourism accounted for 6.3% of Portuguese GDP, as opposed to 11.8% the previous year.