The Confederation of Portuguese Tourism (CTP) pointed out this Tuesday that Portugal has already lost nearly 650 million euros due to the non-decision of a new airport, a figure that is now visible in an electronic counter next to the 2nd Circular in Lisbon.
The calculation has been performed since July 14 and is updated every second on the electronic counter that was inaugurated today on the 2nd ring road, in Lisbon, near the Humberto Delgado Airport, and is the result of a study by CTP and EY.
“Last year we started a study with Ernst & Young [EY] to try to measure the impact of not deciding on an airport and, right away, we thought of putting this counter, which was already on our website, so that people in general and the political power in particular could have an idea of the cost of not making a decision about the airport,” said the president of the CTP, Francisco Calheiros, speaking to journalists in Lisbon.
Since July and until 16:30 today, the number is close to 650 million euros, and is the result of an analysis that counted with the participation of all ‘stakeholders’ (interested parties), including travel agencies, hotels, aviation, airports, entertainment, restaurants, among others.
“We calculated how many frequencies we were losing [due to the lack of ‘slots’], what the average traffic was and the average spend per tourist” to ascertain the figure released, he explained.