The Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, said today at the opening of Spain’s major tourism trade exhibition in Madrid that the best way of boosting tourism in Portugal is to increase market share from those countries where Portugal has already a good track record.
"If you look at our major markets, our market share is still very small, which means that we have a huge margin for improvement in the countries in which we do well. I refer to the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Brazil and Germany," said Adolfo Mesquita Nunes whose statement of the patently obvious drew admiring looks.
The young Secretary of State continued in the same vein as he spoke of the need to alter promotional messages according to the market sector, "We have to target the message for the market, and we can not send the same message to everyone. The Chinese tourist does not want the same as the British," he said, without giving examples of this contrasting consumer behaviour.
Last year’s tourist numbers for Portugal were significantly better than previous years but Numes would not be drawn into predictions for the 2014 figures.
The question of reducing VAT for the tourism sector, most especially the restaurant sector, is, as far as the Secretary of State is concerned, not going to happen this year “but the growth we had last year demonstrates that the tourism sector continues to overcome obstacles that they face," not addressing the point that they could have done an awful lot better.
But the press did not turn up to listen to Nunes batting on about figures - they came to see the world's number one surfer - Garett McNamara. As the theme of Portugal’s stand was ‘surf,’ the world record holder for surfing, Mcnamara was on hand as Portugal’s surfing ambassador - McNamara being the American who made worldwide news when he was filmed surfing the mountainous wave at Nazaré last year, thus creating a world record.
The surfing deity said that "the message of ‘destination Portugal’ goes beyond surfing, but many people still have the image of that huge wave. Portugal receives many people in summer and in winter not so many, but all her cities are prepared to receive visitors."
McNamara drew crowds at the Portugal stand at Madrid's FITUR where dozens of people asked him for autographs and photographs.
McNamara believes that the message about the richness of tourism in Portugal, sparked off by the Nazaré wave, has been sent around the world, "And not just for surfers, but for visitors and spectators who are attracted to Portugal to see the big waves."
McNamara rejected recent criticism about bureaucratic difficulties and regulations that have caused problems for surfers who wanted to access the big waves of Nazaré and in other parts of the country. He diplomatically pointed out that there are rules and regulations everywhere and that, for example, in Hawaii where he lives, "you have to have a license to Jet-ski and have to attend two weeks of classes."
McNamara said that his objective is to promote, using Nazaré as an example, the other fabulous sites of Portugal and show that there is so much to explore.
"I myself want to know these other points, the food, the wine, the people, the fabulous things that Portugal has to offer, these can attract more people to Portugal," said our new ambassador, sticking to the script.
"We have to show them that the waves are good, the food and places to stay are good and that the weather in Portugal is perhaps the best in Europe."
