Prepare o seu negócio para a chegada do Turismo no Verão


After the winter of our confinement, summer is arriving with promises of greater freedom and normality. For the tourism sector, the news is encouraging, not only because of the gradual lifting of restrictions and the entry into force of the digital green certificate, but also because of the package of financial incentives recently approved by the Council of Ministers.

This package of measures is called the "Tourism Acceleration Plan" and has 6 billion euros in financial stimuli whose main objective is to ensure that the sector reaches 27 billion euros in revenue by 2027.

Half of this six billion will be used to solve companies' capitalisation problems, largely due to the end of the moratoriums in September this year. As Pedro Siza Vieira (Minister of the Economy) said during the presentation of the plan, this figure is not fixed and could even be higher.

Another of the measures included in the Tourism Acceleration Plan was the launch of IVAucher, a temporary mechanism that came into force on 1 June and will allow taxpayers to receive the VAT spent on restaurants, tourist accommodation (hotels, local lodgings, etc.) and cultural venues during one quarter and spend it in the following quarter.

As has happened before with other sectors, this government measure aims to stimulate and help consumption in the sectors that have been so massacred by the pandemic, such as catering, tourism and culture.

In addition to these two measures, this plan, which has four pillars (supporting companies, fostering security, generating business and building the future), also includes new credit lines, strengthening existing ones and tourism promotion campaigns.

With the backstops being taken care of by the entry into force on 1 July of the digital green certificate that will allow any citizen of the European Union who has already been vaccinated/received a negative test result/had recovered from Covid-19 to move freely around the European area and by the package of financial stimulus measures launched by the government, the ball is in the hands of tour operators who will have to prepare to receive substantially more tourists on their premises than what happened in 2020.

How to prepare your business for the arrival of summer

In addition to the hygiene and safety rules that all economic agents already know backwards and forwards and which must continue to be safeguarded, the expected arrival of a larger influx of tourists than last year will require your business to take special care with the management of bookings and payments.

The need to provide the expected thousands of national and international guests with fast and efficient means of payment that take into account the demands of this "new normal" and the democratisation of the contactless technology and the online payments at a distance, makes the existence of payment solutions for hotels that accommodates all these dimensions.

The need for reinvention in the face of current demands, not only from the pandemic, but also from the new type of consumer that has emerged, has led REDUNIQ to develop a series of payment solutions for hotels which promise to make life easier for businesses in the tourism sector and enable them to manage payments more efficiently. They are all based on Contactless TPA the latest generation, such as the REDUNIQ Smart Android payment terminalwhich, in addition to accepting contactless paymentschip and MB Way, comes with a set of built-in apps that help businesses manage and allow them to be totally mobile and digital.

DCC - Currency Conversion

Excluding those coming from eurozone countries, those arriving in Portugal from, for example, China, the United Kingdom, Sweden or Switzerland may encounter problems making payments in their home currency.

When it comes to making a payment at a hotel, this can be a problem, but that's exactly why REDUNIQ offers the service DCC - Currency Conversion which, in a simple and fast way, allows its customers to choose to pay by card in their currency of origin, in a transparent, informed and secure way.

The process is simple. O TPA recognises the source currency of your customer's Visa or Mastercard and then, if the payment is eligible for DCCThe amount is shown in the currency of origin and in euros, as well as the exchange rate. In the end, it's up to the customer to decide which currency they prefer to pay in.

As well as being able to receive customers from all over the world, without any barriers or complications, this service does not change the way you pay by card and also provides you with additional revenue for your business as REDUNIQ shares the markup (the amount paid by the cardholder when they convert the currency into a foreign currency). DCC transaction) with you.

If these are some of the advantages that DCC brings to your business, your customers can choose the currency in which they want to pay, transparency in currency conversion and the certainty of the amount they will have to pay, giving them greater control over their spending.

Find out more about the potential of DCC through this video:

Integrated Payment Solution for Hospitality

The DCC - Currency Conversion is joined by the integrated payments for Hospitality which, through the integration of the TPA (automatic payment terminal) with the main hotel billing software, ensures that your customers' check-in and check-out processes are faster, safer and more efficient.

It all starts at check-in. At this point, the guest presents their card once as a means of payment. The hotel employee indicates the estimated amount of the customer's final expense and automatically authorises the amount on the card used (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diner and Discover) via the payment terminal connected to the management system.

Throughout the stay, whenever the amount of expenditure exceeds the authorised amount, the management system automatically triggers successive authorisation requests (top-up) on the customer's card. This ensures that the customer has sufficient funds to settle the total amount of their expense.

At check-out, the account is closed by the hotel clerk and automatically debited from the customer's account. Since the system registers the card details at check-in, there is no need for the customer to authenticate the transaction again, thus making check-out quicker and simpler.

In addition to these gains in speed and efficiency, this solution can also be integrated with the indispensable  DCC - Currency Conversion.

Key Enter TPA

In a sector as competitive as tourism, it's important not to lose any bookings due to a lack of customised payment methods. In addition to the long and diverse range of TPA of REDUNIQ with contactless technology that help your business keep up with the new consumer profile emanating from the pandemic - according to the latest report REDUNIQ Insights, the contactless payments already account for almost 40% of the total turnover of Portuguese businesses - the brand joins the Key Enter TPA, a solution TPA which will allow you to accept bookings or payments remotely, directly from your payment terminal.

Through TPAYou'll be able to authorise transactions remotely and thus ensure that you don't miss any bookings. O Key Enter TPA REDUNIQ also allows customers to make payments in cases of "no show" - when they haven't used or cancelled the reverse - or "late charge" - for last-minute consumption detected after their departure.

In addition to contactless and reserves, the Key Enter TPA can be associated with the DCC- Currency Conversion and/or the solution Integrated Payments for the hotel industry.