British vacationers began arriving in large numbers in southern Portugal on Monday for the first time in more than a year, after governments in the two countries eased their COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

A plane from Manchester, England, disembarked the first of more than 5,000 tourists expected to arrive on 17 UK flights in Portugal’s southern Algarve region on the first day nonessential travel was allowed.

As local temperatures climbed toward a forecast high of 32 C (90 F), the tourists were met at Faro airport by workers handing out COVID-19 welcome kits containing masks and disinfectant, and by the head of the Algarve tourist authority.

The arrivals brightened the outlook for Portugal’s crucial tourism sector, especially the sun and surf resorts along the Algarve coast which relies heavily on the UK market and where hotels shut down for most of the past year.