Algarve Tourism Association (ATA) staff have gone back to France to the country’s leading trade fair for tourism, the International French Travel Market Top Resa, with 30,000 industry professional expected to attend.
After several years of not going, the decision by ATA to be present at the 2016 event was spurred on by the growth in French tourists to Portugal and the numbers moving to the country, often for tax reasons.
"France has been the market that has grown the most in our region. In 2015 there was an increase of 17.7% over 2014. This year, the growth trend has been maintained with a 32% increase in the first six months of the year,” according to Dora Coelho, executive director of the Association.
ATA staff went to France in March too, attending the Salon Mondial du Tourisme in Paris which was aimed at the French public.
The ATA stand is incorporated in the Turismo de Portugal area which also has space to promote 28 Portuguese tourism companies.
The State Secretary of Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, said that two million French tourists came to Portugal last year, with a significant rise in French buyers of holiday and permanent homes.
Godinho is attending the exhibition which began today, 20th September and runs for two days at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Park.
The secretary of state was on the Turismo de Portugal stand and declared with a sagacity that belies her tender years that Portugal’s participation at the exhibition is due to "the importance of the French market to Portugal."
France now is in the top three tourism groups for Portugal, but still way behind the British and Spanish. When it comes to buying houses in the Algarve, the French this year have knocked the British from first place, due often to their desire to avoid crippling taxes in France and retire to an income tax free Portugal, should they qualify.
Ana Mendes Godinho said that among the "most popular areas" for the French in Portugal is Lisbon, "but interestingly all regions are growing in terms of tourist demand from the French as they discover the countryside in the Centre, the Alentejo, the North, and the Algarve.”
"This year the French market for property in Portugal has grown by about 30%, particularly from those doing up houses in historical town and city centers. We have many French who at present live in Portugal - not only retirees but also young people who have decided to live in Portugal," concluded the secretary of state.
