Holidaymakers could be able to visit Portugal from the “middle of May”, the nation’s ambassador to the UK has confirmed.
Manuel Lobo Antunes said he was hoping regular travel between the two countries could be established within weeks.
Asked when Portugal will be opening its borders to tourists from the UK, Mr Lobo Antunes told Sky News: “As soon as possible, this is not just a unilateral matter, we have to coordinate this issue with our British friends and the UK Government.
“But we are hopeful, as we have been saying for these last months, that from the middle of May, regular mobility between the UK and Portugal and vice versa, can be established, that’s our hope.”
Asked if Britons who have not been vaccinated can travel into the country, he added: “Yes, that’s the idea, that’s what we wanted, to as much as possible go back to the regime that existed before the pandemic.
“It’s in that direction we are working and that is possible.”
Meanwhile, Spain has indicated it will be ready to welcome back tourists – including those from the UK – in June.
The country – which welcomed 18 million Brits in 2019 – says a digital certificate scheme is currently being trialled with a view to a wider rollout in June.
Spain’s tourism minister Fernando Valdes Verelst told a travel and tourism conference in Mexico: “I think the best thing that Governments right now can provide to travellers is certainty, give the proper information and the security that they can travel and they can come back to the countries.
“In those terms, in the European Union, we put in place a system … that provides us with digital certificate.
“Spain is going to be ready in June to use this digital certificate. We are doing a pilot programme in May, in all our 46 airports.
“We are going to give all these travellers that certainty. Spain is going to be ready in June to tell all travellers worldwide that you can visit us.”
