Azores Situation Report 16th September 2021
From our colleague in the Azores
Covid -19
Since the last Situation Report a week ago on the 8th September of August there have been 62 new cases of Covid-19 registered and 68 recoveries.
The region now has an Rt rate of .66. All the islands are at ‘Very Low’ or have achieved ‘Herd Immunity’. More information can be found here:- https://covid19.azores.gov.pt/
Current situation:
Currently, there are 114 active positive cases in the archipelago, with 74 on São Miguel island, 15 on Terceira island, 22 on Pico island and three on Faial island. There are 2 people in hospital and none in intensive care.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 8,819 positive cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores, 8,490 people have recovered from the disease, 42 died, 94 left the archipelago and 79 provided evidence of previous cure. To date, 687,244 tests have been carried out for SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 disease.
From 31st of December 2020 to 6th of September, 170,146 people in the Azores have been vaccinated with the first dose (71.9 per cent) and 177,122 with complete vaccination (74,8 per cent), within the Regional Vaccination Plan.
Tourist Accommodation Statistics
The tourist accommodation sector registered 1.6 million guests and 4.5 million overnight stays in July, increases of 59.6% and 71.9% respectively, compared to the same month of the previous year, numbers released today by the National Statistics Institute.
However, comparing it to July 2019, the period prior to the covid-19 pandemic guest registrations decreased by 42.5% and overnight stays decreased by 45%.
Still comparing with July 2019, there is a growth of 6.4% in overnight stays from residents and a decrease of 67.6% in overnight stays from non-residents, also indicate data from INE on tourist activity.
According to INE, overnight stays by residents in July registered an “expressive growth” in the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores and in the Algarve.
Between January and July, considering most types of accommodation (tourist accommodation establishments, camping and holiday camps and youth hostels), there were 5.8 million guests and 14.8 million overnight stays, corresponding to breaks of 1.2% in both cases, compared to the same period in 2020.
Sustainable Tourism
The Azores want to “raise sustainability standards” and achieve, in 2024, the certification of gold as a sustainable tourist destination.
In 2019, the Azores were the first region in the country certified as a sustainable tourist destination, a distinction awarded with the “silver” category by EarthCheck.
EarthCheck is an international certification and consultancy group for scientific benchmarking in travel and tourism, in operation since 1987. The certification responded to the criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, an international accreditation body for certification of sustainable tourism.
The Azores certification process began in 2017, proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism.