Tourism revenues grew 60% between 2011 and 2019
Revenues from tourism grew 60% between 2011 and 2019 according to the Minister of State, Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira.
Speaking behind the scenes at the 5th UNWTO Conference on Wine Tourism which in Reguengos de Monsaraz which ended on the 10 September, the minister said that the reason why Portuguese tourism had skyrocketed between those dates was because “we marketed tourists from more countries, throughout the year and for different regions in Portugal”.
Pedro Siza Vieira added that the future of tourism in Portugal “was based on reaching more markets”, and “having tourism all year round to fight the seasonal nature of tourism in Portugal which traditionally enjoys its high season in the summer and early autumn months, and to “highlight more destinations” and attract overseas visitors to them.
“This is why we’ve invested in more tourism products that attract tourists to other regions of the country in addition to the traditional tourism regions: Lisbon, the Algarve and Madeira,” he said.
Held under the theme ‘Wine Tourism – a driver for rural development’, the conference focused on the contribution of wine tourism to social and economic regional integration and its great potential to generate development opportunities in remote rural destinations.
Building on UNWTO’s work on advancing tourism at the centre of plans for recovery, the conference represented a unique opportunity for experts from across the growing field of wine tourism to work together to find concrete solutions to build back better and make tourism an enabler of the way forward towards a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient future for rural communities.