Covid-19

The Network of Historical Villages of Portugal (AHP) has developed an operational plan to combat Covid-19, with the aim of reinforcing the 12 villages in the network as safe and sustainable destinations, in the current pandemic scenario.

The plan, prepared in partnership with the Deloitte consultancy group, started from a challenge launched by the AHP, aimed at ensuring that the entire tourism ecosystem of the 12 Historical Villages of Portugal has the capacity to respond to the new situation, in order to safeguard the interests of the communities and, at the same time, transmit a feeling of security which attracts tourists.

The plan emphasises the need to raise the awareness of tourists, residents, economic agents and various entities to the effects of the pandemic, since the majority of the population of the villages is in a risk group, due to their advanced age.

In this sense, and in order to respond to the identified, transversal and specific needs, the plan lists a set of measures to be applied, divided into three focal points:

• Digitisation, with the implementation of various measures to digitise processes, with a view to reducing contact points;
• Physical, with the development of sanitary adaptation measures in terms of mobility, information and hygiene;
• Training, with the development of guides on good practices in health safety and sustainability (the Responsible Tourist Manifesto is an example of this), the organisation of training actions such as “Safe and Sustainable Destination” clarification webinars, but also the implementation of different monitoring systems, in order to assess the evolution of the implemented mitigation measures, as well as the implementation of technologies with flow management functionality.

DGS (Directorate-General of Health) GUIDELINES