Good News for Cape Verde 2021 - Cape Verde back on the list of safest countries for tourists

The medical and security services company International SOS again placed Cape Verde as one of the safest countries for tourists to visit in 2021, along with others like Greenland, Switzerland, Slovenia and Norway.

According to the map on travel risks released this week, Cape Verde is once again part of the group of just over a dozen states with an "insignificant" level of risk for travellers.

Cape Verde was once again the only country in Africa classified with the "insignificant" level - the lowest of five - at risk for the safety of tourist travel.

Among them are Greenland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Norway, Finland and Denmark, as well as other islands such as Anguilla, Tusk and Caicos.

Conversely, the five most dangerous countries in the world for tourists are Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Central African Republic, the company concluded, with headquarters in London and Singapore, and which annually reports receiving five million calls from requests for assistance from tourists.

The map shows where tourists are most likely to face security risks, such as the threat of political violence, social unrest, violent crimes, and this year the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic have been pointed out.

In 2019, Cape Verde broke the record of almost 820 thousand tourists received, and the Government had set the goal of reaching one million annual tourists by 2021.

But this year is experiencing an economic crisis caused by the pandemic of the covid-19, with the tourism sector, which guarantees 25% of the GDP, stopped since March, with losses that can reach 70%.

For the next year, the Government forecasts an increase in the number of tourists, between 22% to 35%, depending on the epidemiological picture, both in the country and in the world.

With regard to covid-19, the map shows that New Zealand, Tanzania and Nicaragua are at the top of the list of countries with a very low impact of the disease.

At the extreme bet, with a high impact of the pandemic are countries like Russia, Ukraine, Austria and Jordan.

International SOS is a private company that works with international organizations, the largest multinational companies, governments and non-governmental organizations, with almost three dozen tourist support centres, serving 90 countries.