Lisbon Travel Fair kicks off today

The turnstiles opened at Lisbon’s annual travel fair BTL – Bolsa de Turismo de Lisboa today (Wednesday, 1 March).

The organisation is optimistic and believes that the largest fair in the sector in Portugal could recover the number of visitors it had in 2019 which had been a record year for the sector.
This year, Tunisia is the guest country invited to BTL, while on a national level the spotlight will be on the regional tourism board representing the Central area of Portugal and the Municipality of Aveiro.
Brazil also has a significant presence at the fair which runs for the rest of the week until Sunday 5 of March.
In 2005 over 350,000 Portuguese visited Brazil, but numbers fell substantially in 2019 when 176,000 Portuguese travelled to the county. Numbers recovered in 2022 with 150,000 tourists.
The President of Brazil’s international tourism agency Embratur, Marcelo Freixo said that Portugal is one of the most important markets for Brazilian tourism, adding that 93% of those Portuguese canvassed in surveys who hd gone on holiday to Brazil said that they wanted to return.
The President of Embratur also says it has been in negotiations with airline companies to increase the destinations and number of flights between the two countries.
“Since Brazil has a lot of destinations to choose from, from Amazonia to Gramado and including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, the Pantanal and north-east, there are lots of possibilities.”