With the British market representing around 20 percent of international tourism in Portugal, Pedro Machado, Secretary of State for Tourism (SET), told Publituris that the way to scale this market involves, “the great presence of Portugal in one of the largest world fairs in the sector, with the presence of 112 companies at the Turismo de Portugal stand”.
Pedro Machado made a point of reinforcing this idea, not only with the presence of these 112 companies, but because of the fact that “these companies represent the entire national territory. Portugal no longer presents itself as just the Algarve, Lisbon or Madeira, but as a complete and diverse tourist destination”.
“For many years, our presence did not, in fact, reflect what Portugal was in terms of tourism”, he said. “We have been growing and showing a different, diverse and valuable Portugal. We have seen Porto, the Centre, the Azores and the Alentejo grow, which means that today there is a more equitable distribution of what is, on the one hand, the suitability for the UK market from the point of view of our companies, but also, and this is the justification for being here, for the United Kingdom to look at Portugal in a different way, as more global, broader and with greater diversity”.
“The presence of the statement ‘Portugal is Art’ means that we are gastronomy, nature, but also art, wine tourism, literature, industrial tourism”, stressing that “we are, deep down, opening up what our value propositions are for a country that is more modern, more competitive and can perfectly respond to various motivations, various expectations”.
More flights
Pedro Machado also highlighted what his own presence, as well as that of Turismo de Portugal, is doing at WTM. “Just now I finished a meeting with Jet2, which will have direct flights to Porto, the Algarve and will seriously think about strengthening its presence in Madeira. This means that British operators themselves are looking at Portugal as a good bet for the present, but mainly for the future”.
This entire scenario makes Pedro Machado confident that “we can definitely surpass the threshold of 10 million overnight stays in 2024, after, in 2023, we surpassed 9 million overnight stays and reached close to 4 million guests”.
Regarding the influencing power of the British market, Pedro Machado admits that “a market with 70 million people can always influence other issuing markets. We are talking about one of the most powerful financial markets in the world, immense geographies intersect here, which means that Portugal’s image, which is frankly positive, can expand exponentially”.
The Secretary of State for Tourism concluded by highlighting a very important factor, not only for the British market but for everyone: “Security. The world’s perception of Portugal in relation to the fact of it being a safe destination is priceless”.
This post was originally published on here
