The president of Turismo de Portugal gave a keynote speech at the 27th Congress of the Portuguese Hoteliers Association in Évora, saying that innovation is one of the main factors that has led to the current positive results of the tourism sector in Portugal.
João Cotrim Figueiredo was speaking on behalf of the Secretary of State for Tourism, who sensibly was unavailable, saying that "the path taken so far is a successful path" and that "these results are no accident, but are down to work and investment without which it would not have been possible. "
Figueirdo said the sector is now "more robust and healthy," but warned that "what has allowed us to be competitive may not be enough to ensure enduring success," highlighting the importance of investment in innovation, "the costs of not innovating are much higher than the costs of innovation."
The head of the Portuguese Hoteliers Association Luís Veiga was not impressed at this party political broadcast and pointed the finger of shame at politicians, blaming them for promoting inefficiencies in tourism generally, and in the hotel industry in particular, saying there was "political indifference" towards the industry and that political activity was influencing and disrupting the market.
Veiga asked whether the growth in tourism in Portugal could simply be cyclical or structural with the problems in other destinations, such as North Africa, leading to a switch by tourists to Portugal promoted by low cost airlines.
The real threat to the hotel business was described by Veiga as the local lettings market which the hoteliers see the government encouraging at the expense of the highly regulated hotel sector.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, is on record as saying he wants to promote both types of tourism and it is no surprise that the hoteliers are annoyed at the local lettings market which remains largely unregulated.
Fewer than 20,000 property owners so far have bothered to register their properties on the Alojamento Local scheme which, despite the Secretary of State claiming this as a great success, is only around 10% of the total number that should be registered.
Luís Alves de Sousa, director-general of Heritage Hotels said, "I am fully convinced that if there is a minimum requirement, a large portion of these local lettings will cease to exist because they will no longer be profitable."
It is this lack of ‘minimum requirement’ i.e. taxes, regulations, bureaucracy and the fees that hotels pay and local lettings owners do not, that Luís Veiga says will "not be solved with this government."
The hoteliers blame Adolfo Mesquita Nunes for his ‘political indifference’ over illegal rentals which continue with impunity, thus limiting competition.
Luís Veiga said that politics, unfortunately, has been responsible for inefficiencies that now exist.
Moving on to the airport tax to fund local councils, ostensibly for their tourism projects, Veiga said it was very difficult to charge the airport tax in hotels, and suggested ANA’s president Jorge Ponce de Leon and Lisbon council have a rethink as to how best to rake in the tax without adding to the bureaucracy that already exists in the hotel industry.
