2014 to be the best summer season in Portugal
Based on the confidence rating of over a hundred public entities and private companies, this year’s summer season in Portugal will be the best one in a very long time. Actually on a scale from 0 to 100, the overall confidence rating reached 74 for the 2014 summer season whilst the same study in April 2013 had an average confidence index of 61.1. It should be noted that last years was also one of the best years on record for the tourism industry in Portugal.
The study, conducted by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Developments – IPDT – showed that despite the increasing diversity of the Portuguese tourism market the main attraction continues to be the ‘Sea and Sand’ area and especially the Algarve, obviously.
Taking this into consideration though, most respondents consider that ‘Value for Money’ should be the main characteristic used by agents when promoting Portugal abroad, with the ‘Sea and Sand’ being second. We should note that the study also revealed increased hope in the improvement of domestic tourism, with 55.5 percent of responders believing that this summer will see more Portuguese tourist travelling within their country’s borders.
As far as foreign tourist are concerned, a whopping 90.1 percent of respondents are anticipating an increase in terms of both influx and spending, so one has to think that so many businesses can’t be wrong.
In terms of what the future should be in regards to improving Portugal’s competitiveness on the tourism market, 77.5 percent of the panel considered ‘differentiation’ should be the main focus.
Obviously these are only projections and truth be told they do seem rather optimistic, but considering last year’s great summer season and the efforts to market the country’s tourism opportunities after that, all of these hopes might pay off in the end. We’ll just have to wait and see.
