The president of Turismo de Portugal, Carlos Abade, said today that the sector is 7.6% away from reaching the revenue target of 27,000 million euros set for 2027.
“We’re 7.6% away from reaching the tourist revenue of 27 billion euros in 2024,” as forecast for 2027, said the head of Turismo de Portugal, who was the guest at a luncheon of the Hotel Association of Portugal (AHP) in Lisbon, according to Lusa.
Admitting that it’s impossible to make predictions on January 15th for the year that has just begun, Carlos Abade stressed that the tourism sector in Portugal is “particularly competitive”, having grown at a faster rate than the world average.
For the president of Turismo de Portugal, “there’s no reason to think that it won’t be exactly the same in 2024”.
According to recently released data, forecasts point to 77 million overnight stays in 2023, an increase of almost 11% on the previous year, and revenues of close to 25 billion euros.
Carlos Abade also dismissed as “absurd” the idea that the tourism sector is reaching its limits, but pointed out some challenges for the sector in 2024, including creating value for residents.
“Tourism is good as long as it’s good for people and tourism has been very good for people,” he said.
Another of the challenges listed by Carlos Abade is to value and qualify workers, stressing that the increase in salaries in the sector has been higher than the growth in the national average.
Earlier, the president of the AHP, Bernardo Trindade, had highlighted the impact of the increase in interest rates on the hotel industry, “a classic measure in the fight against inflation”, and expressed his willingness to work together with Turismo de Portugal on the problem.
During the questions phase of the hearing, Carlos Abade was asked about the new Lisbon airport and argued that, for the time being, the existing infrastructure must be managed “more efficiently”, stressing that “all airports in Portugal have the capacity to grow”.