TOURISM LAW AND COMPETITION – A PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE 423 European Union (also “EU”), and the world in general, is going through unique times, stemming from the coronavirus outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic 4 (“COVID-19 crisis”). And with the overwhelming economic consequences resulting in particular from the confinement measures to combat it (hereinafter “COVID-19 economic crisis”), make such a challenge even greater. The paradigm of tourism as considered in the last decade seems to be rapidly changing and the public authorities are developing efforts to support players in their adaptation to this new reality.The metamorphosis in the overall competition environment in recent years, where globalisation coexisted with growing economic protectionism and the explosion of digital, has faced a supplementary call for adaptation because of the coronavirus pandemic and its unprecedented economic consequences. According to the 27 May Council’s Conclusions, “the tourism ecosystem employs around 20.3 million people in the EU, and that in 2019, the last year before the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, accounted for 9.5% of the EU’s GDP, with a 7% value of overall EU exports. With the pandemic revenues of some sub-sectors dropped by up to 80% of net value and around 11 million jobs in the EU have already been impacted in the tourism ecosystem in 2020”5. Tourism activities have been an important source of revenue in Portugal, which has grown steadily in the last decade. Moreover, the sources of attraction for tourists broadened substantially, as they considered the destinations in Portugal, the activities to be developed and the countries which are deemed competitors from a supply perspective of comparable touristic services. For several circumstances, in recent years tourism has contributed significantly to the progress of the Portuguese economy and the debate arose as to whether its growth would be sustainable and what efforts should be undertaken by market players and the public authorities (notably in terms of legislation), while also considering the goals to be accomplished. 4 The World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. According to the WHO “Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. A novel coronavirus (nCoV) was identified on 7 January 2020 and was temporarily named “2019-nCoV”. It was subsequently named the “COVID-19 virus””. 5 These Conclusions concern “Tourism for Europe in the next decade”. The document is available at https:// www.consilium.europa.eu/media/49960/st08881-en21.pdf. Concerning this statement, the Conclusions refer to the Commission’s Staff Working Document, Identifying Europe’s recovery needs, SWD(2020) 98: https://ec. europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economyfinance/assessment_of_economic_and_investment_needs.pdf
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