COVID-19 Disruption on Tourism-Aviation in Madeira

Abstract

Madeira airport is the main gateway responsible for the entry of passengers into the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM). Is tourism in ARM heavily dependent on Air Transport? The specific objective is to establish, through Pearson's correlation analysis, the observed behavior of some indicators (in 2919 and 2020) on tourist activity and its relationship with air traffic. Several tourist indicators and their influence on tourism were studied, as well as the evidence that air transport is central to the tourist development of Madeira Island. The information collected and the correlations results shows a crucial importance of air transportation for the tourism activity in ARM. The existence of flights to the island means more capacity to generate traffic, more tourists, more occupation of hotels and greater economic development.