Forbes puts Porto in Top 20 must visit cities for 2020

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Portugal continues to be ‘flavour of the year’ by overseas entities.

This time Forbes magazine retains a Top 20 slot for Porto which it says is one of 20 ‘must see’ cities to visit in 2020 around the world.
Porto has been elected one of 20 cities as a good destination to visit for couples, particularly to see its “hand-painted azulejo tiles”.
Top of the list is Lake Powell, in Arizona and Palermo in Italy. On Porto, the magazine opined “good food, perfect climate and value-for-money”.
These were some of the reasons given in the magazine by the Ovation Travel Agency Group with Forbes classifying Porto as the 7th best city for tourists to visit in 2020.
As for places to stay, it trumpets “some excellent properties, including The Yeatman and Maison Albar Hotels/Le Monumental,” says Andrew Steinberg, concierge of Luxury Travel for Modern Travel which is an affiliate of the Ovation Travel Group and who was quoted in the magazine.
Over the last few years, Porto has won a plethora of international awards as the city experienced significant increases in tourism to around 4 million annual visitors by 2019.
Part of its success has to do with vigorous campaigns by the Porto and North Tourism Agency (Porto e Turismo do Norte), and the low-cost airline Ryanair hub at the award-winning Sá Carneiro Airport.
Porto won the European Best Destination award from the World Travel Awards in 2012, 2014 and 2017.
Since 2017, the city has received an average of 2.8 million overnight visitors and 1.4 million day trippers with 73% from overseas visitors. Tourism revenue was up 11% in 2018 alone.
According to a 2019 report, over 10% of Porto’s economic activity was tied to tourism. Hotel take-up rate was 77% in 2017 while a scholarly study in 2019 stated “Porto is one of the fastest growing European tourist destinations that has experienced exponential growth in the demand for city break tourists.”