Portugal expects to repeat this year the growth of tourism above the forecast for 2022.

This Wednesday, Portugal presented itself at the Madrid Tourism Fair (FITUR), one of the largest in the world, in hopes of replicating the sector’s higher-than-expected growth for 2022 this year and attracting more tourists to Spain.

Last year was already the “best in terms of revenue” for Portuguese tourism, with an valuation of over 22 billion euros, comparable to 18.4 billion in 2019, the last year without any impact from the covid-19 pandemic. , Luis Araujo, president of Turismo de Portugal, told reporters this Wednesday in Madrid at the opening of FITUR, which will last until Sunday.

“We recovered earlier than expected,” said the president of the organization responsible for promoting Portugal as a tourist destination.

“For 2023, we predict the continuation of growth, which was in 2022, obviously with a lot of uncertainty, from the war in Ukraine to inflation. But we think we are in a very good position. An example of this is this FITUR exhibition. “, – added Luis Araujo, stressing that the Spanish market is currently the second largest for Portugal in terms of the number of guests and the fourth in terms of income.

With regard to Spain, according to Luis Araujo, “work remains to be done” to increase revenues at the expense of “certain segments” of the market.

From a more global perspective, he said, the strategy is to “try to further diversify the main markets” that are fundamental to Portuguese tourism.

To this end, one of the keys to growth is air travel, on which Portuguese tourism depends due to the country’s geographic location.

“We have managed to resume the routes we lost in 2020 and 2021 and we are already on very close terms. [aos dos anos anteriores]. This year, 2023, we will surpass 2019. This is one of the important factors in the recovery of the sector,” said the president of Turismo de Portugal.

Luis Araujo stressed that “growth is taking place at all airports” and cited as an example Spain, a country that last year had connections to five Portuguese national airports via the Spanish airline Iberia, “an excellent distribution factor” for tourists. mainly from markets that Portugal has not entered in the past, such as Mexico or other countries in South America.

“Our role is to work with each of our airports, and there is still room for growth in many airports, to try to demonstrate this attractiveness to all regions. We understand that there is obviously a hub that Lisbon is doing this distribution, but there are many reasons why many markets are interesting for destinations such as the Algarve, the north or the islands,” he said.

Around 8,500 companies from 131 countries, including 92 from Portugal, will take part from Wednesday to Sunday at the Madrid International Tourism Fair (FITUR), one of the largest in the world.

The Portuguese representation also, as usual, includes the country’s seven tourism regions (Porto and North, Centre, Alentejo, Algarve, Madeira and Azores), hosted with 92 companies at the 900 square meter Turismo de Portugal exhibition. Several municipalities and inter-municipalities are also represented on their “booths” in FITUR.

FITUR was inaugurated this Wednesday by Spain’s Kings Felipe VI and Letizia, and the ceremony was attended by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Nuno Fazenda, who, in statements to journalists, stressed the importance of the Spanish market and the “strong presence” of national companies at this year’s Madrid Fair.

“The Spanish market is a very important market for our country, it is the second largest overnight market and the first in some regions such as the North, Center and Alentejo. And in this context, we also have to work on several segments that will also grow in value, as well as grow domestically, in the interior of Portugal,” he said.

Economy Minister António Costa Silva and Spanish Minister of Tourism Reyes Maroto will present this Thursday at FITUR the strategy for cross-border cooperation between Portugal and Spain in the field of tourism, which was agreed upon at the last summit of the Iberian Islands. , last November.

“This is a stepping stone to the development of the hinterland of our country, also in terms of tourism,” emphasized Nuno Fazenda, who considers the border region an “Iberian center” that needs to be developed by promoting tourism, as well as by increasing and improving air quality . , road and rail lines between Portugal and Spain, as planned, he stressed, as part of investment from European funds from recovery and resilience plans.

The Secretary of State expressed “very satisfaction” with companies and other organizations joining this edition of FITUR with the aim of establishing Portugal as a tourist destination in the Spanish market.

At the same time, he defended the continuity of focusing on strategic markets for Portugal inside and outside Europe, where 80% of the country’s tourism demand is concentrated.

In this context, he cited as an example the recent success of a bet on the United States, which made the country the fifth largest in Portuguese tourism.