Lisbon, May 28, 2026 (Lusa) - Hoteliers are not currently seeing “any reported drop in bookings”, despite the problems with long queues at airports, but they warn of “signs of greater volatility”, the executive vice-president of the Portuguese Hotels Association (AHP) told Lusa.
According to Cristina Siza Vieira, “arrival in the country is many tourists' first contact with Portugal, and when that contact is marked by two- or three-hour queues at border control, the experience gets off to a bad start”.
Situations of this nature “have a reputational impact, especially when they are shared and amplified in real time on social media," she said.
Hoteliers are not reporting “any significant drop in bookings”, she said, noting that “demand remains strong and much of the summer is already booked up”.
"There are signs of greater volatility, particularly in individual bookings, with decisions being made later, and greater uncertainty in the markets," she noted, emphasising that "the risk is not limited to this summer".
"Portugal has made significant progress in reducing seasonality, and any damage to its reputation could affect the destination throughout 2026," she said.
Regarding the European Union’s statements, which reject the notion that the problem is linked to the new Entry/Exit System (EES), she believes that “rather than assigning blame, it is important to recognise that there is a combination of factors”.
"The European Commission said that the delays are not the result of a failure of the system itself, but that the EES has introduced new procedures at border points, with greater technological, operational and human demands," she pointed out, saying that a system of this scale "should only be introduced when the conditions are in place to implement it without compromising operations".
“The problem is particularly evident; Queues of two or two-and-a-half hours on arrival in Lisbon in May, before the peak of the high season, are unacceptable," she said.
"Lisbon airport was under severe pressure before these new procedures were introduced."
"We are talking about operational capacity, human resources for border control, training, equipment, e-gates, self-service kiosks and the reliability of technological systems," she added.
Pointing out that "Lisbon is the most critical case, but it is not just a local issue", she said that "one-off measures may help in times of crisis, but they do not solve the problem", advocating for "a more widespread suspension of biometric data collection, for a period long enough to resolve the technological, logistical and human constraints".
According to her, “ANA (Portugal's airports managing company) has been working with the Public Security Police to mitigate the constraints”, but she assured that “this is a systemic problem that goes beyond airport management”.
"It is positive that the interior minister has announced reinforcements from 29 May, and the deployment of 360 additional police officers in July," she said, but expressed concern about this timetable.
"July is too late. Summer is just beginning. The sector cannot wait for solutions to arrive after the damage has already been done," she said.
She believes there is a clear concern on the part of the government, but "the industry needs stability and structural solutions, not weekly crisis management".
The AHP said that Portugal should "address this issue at European level too, in coordination with other countries facing similar difficulties, such as Spain, France or Greece".
For the AHP’s vice-president, “this is not an exclusively Portuguese problem and should not be addressed with isolated responses alone," pointing out that “if the problem is common, the response must also be common”.
Finally, she noted that, given the contacts made through the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP), she hopes that “it will be possible to achieve results quickly”.
ALN/MYAL // AYLS
Lusa
