Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on the travel industry around the world. Cape Verde has suffered badly from the lack of tourism. Many Cape Verdeans rely on tourism either directly or indirectly. However, now that Spring has arrived, there are encouraging signs of hope for Cape Verde.
A Dutch travel company (Reisgraag Agency) has awarded Cape Verde its gold Destination Tourism Award 2021. This agency is one of the largest in the Netherlands. Its awards are based on approved reviews from travel organisations and visitors to a country. Cape Verde scored well in various aspects, with an average score of 7.8 from travellers.
Some of the Cape Verde islands are now free of Covid-19, or have very few cases. The island of Maio is one example, where there are currently no cases. Visitors travelling from two of the islands – Maio and Brava, no longer need to have a rapid Covid test when travelling to other islands. In addition, the vaccine is now being rolled out in Cape Verde.
For the island of Sal, the most popular of the islands for tourist, today is an important one. TAP start flying there from Lisbon today. Initially only twice a week, but we hope that this will increase in time. Flights to Sal have been almost non-existent for about a year. TUI have been flying from Poland recently, but to have the service from Lisbon reinstated will be encouraging for the people of Sal. The new CV Connect Services flights from Lisbon started a few months ago, but were suspended when the Covid situation in Portugal deteriorated. That service is expected to re-start at the end of April.
So, with the roll out of the vaccine, the improved Covid situation, the TAP flights and the gold award we hope that Spring will mark the resumption of tourism for Cape Verde.
