Paulo Portas swept through this weekend’s Mundo Abreu travel fair in an extended media opportunity and declared that "Portugal clearly is trendy.”
With his open neck shirt allowing a deeply untrendy display of silvery tufts of chest hair the deputy prime minister suggested to the trailing media that Portugal is a country that currently is in 'fashion', but also that its tourism offering is beyond mere fashion and is sustainable, and that there are very good reasons to visit.'
Paulo Portas, sporting a blazer and light blue shirt, set a brisk pace as he pressed the flesh and pecked at proffered cheeks during the 13th edition of the Lisbon fair.
Portas said there are "many different reasons and many different audiences who choose Portugal as destination. It has sun, has the ocean, has rivers, has beached, has golf, has shopping, has surf, has food, has heritage, has history, has good access roads, is a hospitable country and the Portuguese are adept at foreign languages,' asking which other countries could possibly compete with that.
Portas do not wish to discuss party matter as he flitted from stand to stand but he did make the valid point that the growth in the tourism industry, and hence the growth in earnings for the country, was dependent on private enterprise rather than the state which just helps to facilitate things.
"Essentially those who attract tourism, who captures the tourism market and who promotes tourism for Portugal are companies in the private sector and their performance has been absolutely extraordinary," said Portas, claiming growth in the sector in 2014 with an increase of 11% in visitors and 12% in the profitability of hotels.
"This is a sign that the economy is better and that tourism makes a very important contribution to the economy, our exports benefit from tourism. I think we see quite clearly that there is a very high demand," added a delighted deputy PM whose recognition that the Algarve supplies over 40% of the cash and taxes generated by tourism has never been sufficient for him to take the region seriously, backing as he does the continuation of a loss-making toll system on the region’s motorway, an over complex Alojamento Local regime, unfettered hydrocarbon exploration, burdensome red tape for private tourism enterprises, the closure of thousands of cafes and restaurants due to an unwarranted VAT hike, the clearing away of fishermen to make way for luxury tourism and the unchecked pollution of natural beauty spots.
