TOURISM LAW AND COMPETITION – A PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE 447 Experiencing an unprecedented crisis the Portuguese tourism sector has been trying to ease the impact by tapping on domestic demand, as well as creating instruments to promote Portugal as a safe destination. That was the case of the “Clean and Safe” certificates in 2020, which is an initiative of the Turismo de Portugal aimed at promoting the country as a safe destination. After transmitting to the companies and professionals of the sector information regarding the best practices in what concerns social distance, hygiene and cleaning measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, the addressees receive the “Clean and Safe” certificates by the Turismo de Portugal. The addressees are those activities and establishments which comply with the above-mentioned best practices through the implementation of protocols based on the requirements deemed appropriate by the Portuguese Directorate General for Health85, thus reinforcing the confidence fromnational and international customers. Such certificates may be requested through a specific online platform and are valid for a period of one year. After two weeks of this initiative’s start, around 20% of the companies linked to tourism had already been granted the “Clean and Safe” certificateand currently more than 21 700 certificates have been issued. Portugal also faces an additional difficulty concerning the impact of the lockdowns and restrictions of circulation to combat COVID-19 in the outermost regions of Azores and Madeira, as already mentioned. The public authorities prohibited travelling from the continent and abroad, for sanitary purposes. For instance, even though as from July 2020, the most severe travelling restrictions had already been lifted by the regional governments of Azores and Madeira and were replaced by the requirement for travellers to take a COVID-19 test beforehand, or remain in quarantine, the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a severe “second wave” beginning at the end of 2020, entailed additional restrictions which were only lifted as from April 2021 with the reduction of the COVID-19 cases, mainly due to the new lockdown imposed at national level and with the beginning of a massive vaccination campaign. Moreover, the free movement of persons on Portugal mainland’s only border with Spain has also been severely restricted during the “first wave” and the “second wave” of infections. Although re-opened on 01 July 2020, the border was subsequently closed on January 2021 for around four months; it only re-opened on 01 May 2021. Spanish tourists form an important part of the overall visitors to the country. 85 Available at: https://www.dgs.pt/.
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