Brits Urged to Avoid Travelling to Portugal’s Sao Jorge Island After It Recorded 1,100 Earthquakes in a Week

Authorities in this zone have been registering seismic activity on the island despite the fact that there have not been recorded significant damages yet. However, local authorities are planning to evacuate the residents, especially those who are in hospital or who have mobility issues.

Such preventive measures will be taken in order to protect the citizens’ lives, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.

Due to the current situation in Sao Jorge, the UK Foreign Office has published advice for all Britons planning to travel to this zone.

“The Portuguese Civil Protection authorities in the Azores have been monitoring an increase in seismic activity on the island of São Jorge since 19 March. As a precaution, they have now activated their earthquake prevention plan and have advised against all but essential travel to the island,” the statement reads.

In addition, the announcement also stressed that “anyone who is already on the island of São Jorge is asked to avoid the areas of flat terrain, known locally as Fajãs, at the foot of the cliffs overlooking the sea in the Velas municipality.”

In this regard, the President of the Regional Government of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro, stressed that, due to the recent seismic activity, local authorities were likely to exercise excessive prudence.

Bolieiro stressed that despite the events have not yet been significant in the sense of causing damage, it is essential to be vigilant and have excess prudence rather than negligence in the action.

He stressed that it is important to emphasise that the rest of the Azores remains unaffected by the seismic activity, so passengers who plan to head to a different island it’s likely to be going ahead as planned.

Despite the warning and the current situation on the island of Sao Jorge, the tourism sector of Portugal has marked a significant improvement during this year.

The restrictions imposed to halt the spread of the Coronavirus also impacted Portugal’s travel and tourism industry; however, in the recent figures provided by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in January this year, there was recorded a threefold increase compared to the same period last year data.

In addition, the same shows that in January 2022, the number of accommodations reached 853,200, while the number of overnight stays reached two million.