Algarve’s image as a safe destination is crucial to record-breaking August
Portuguese tourism officials are celebrating a record-breaking August in terms of tourism revenue and the reason for this being that foreign tourists who otherwise would probably have visited the Middle East this year but went for a safe destination, choosing alternatives because of unrest in that part of the world.
Foreign tourists in Portugal spent more than 1.34 billion Euros in August this year, a record-breaking amount for the month, with the State Secretary for Tourism Adolfo Mesquita Nunes said one of the main factors was the social unrest brought on by the Arab Spring.
On the other hand the growth cannot be solely attributed to this fact because Portugal as a whole has been competing with the rest of the world for that diversion of tourists so that has to be kept in mind.
The amount spent by foreign tourist in Portugal in the month of August 2013 was 5.3 percent more than was registered in the same month of last year – according to figures from the Bank of Portugal.
According to the country’s Minister for Home Affairs – Miguel Macedo – the fact that Portugal is seen as a safe destination abroad is ‘absolutely strategic’ and that regional tourism has benefitted from the instability seen from competing countries such as Turkey or Tunisia.
French tourists were those who increased in number much higher than usual, adding that between January and August 2013 the Algarve saw a rise of 3.5 percent in the number of guests and 3.7 percent in the number of nights spent in that region, when compared with the same period last year.
Ryanair also chimed in with their views of the very lucrative month in August, saying that they will continue to invest in Portugal and that recently they’ve announced the start of operations from Lisbon Airport, offering four new routes to Brussels, Frankfurt, London and Paris.
