The President of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT), Pedro Costa Ferreira, has worryingly stated that the Foreigners and Border Service (SEF) announcement that they intend to carry out industrial action at many national airports, including Madeira, the Azores, Faro or Lisbon, is already being queried by travel operators, especially British tour operators, who at the moment are considered to be a national tourism lifeline.
The pre-industrial action announcement by SEF employees working at national airports, was delivered by the Union of Investigators, Inspection and Borders Inspectors (SIIFF) to the Government, and constitutes an obvious economic threat to Portugal, Madeira and the Azores, at the very moment that tourism begins to take its first steps towards recovery. Even more worrying is that the threat of industrial action is already sending nervous and negative ripples through the tourism industry, and if such action goes ahead, or even if it just lingers as a threat, many believe that it could ruin this summer.
