The meeting of the German tourism industry in the Portuguese capital is met with great interest: About 850 travel industry representatives are participating in the 65th Annual Convention of the German Travel Association (DRV), which is held in Lisbon from 19 to 21 November 2015. "After 1987, this is the second time in the history of our association that the city on the banks of the Tejo is hosting our Annual Convention ", says Norbert Fiebig, President of DRV, at the opening of the industry meeting. "The point in time for holding our Convention here could hardly have been better chosen, for there is a resurgence of interest in this classic tourist destination", says Fiebig. Currently, hardly any European country can match Portugal's momentum in the tourist sector. In only ten years the income generated by this Portuguese sector grew by about 40 percent. "Portugal has recovered faster from the effects of the financial and economic crisis than any other country in Southern Europe, and tourism played a significant role in this" emphasized Fiebig.
"Portugal" says Fiebig "has a wide variety of tourist attractions which include not only the beach resorts on the sunny Algarve coast, but also city trips to Lisbon and Porto. Nature enthusiasts, hikers and golfers will find respective offerings as well." According to Fiebig, targeted marketing highlighting the country's virtues and all it has to offer could help making even better use of the low winter season.
The marked recovery in Portugal can be attributed to a broad tourism strategy pursued by both government and tourism associations. It has already proven successful: for some years tourist traffic from Germany has been on the rise. According to the German market research company GfK, travel agencies recorded a strong growth in sales of package holidays of 14 percent in tourism year 2014/15. Total numbers of inbound passengers (both on business and tourist travel) have been growing by about ten percent annually since 2012, in the first half year of 2015 even by just under 14 percent. This year, the number of guests could exceed the mark of half a million.
Portugal always had to compete against its larger rivals Spain and South of France. In 2006, the government therefore adopted the ambitious National Tourism Plan PENT, which was consistently adhered to even during the euro crisis and updated in 2013. Its measures range from improving vocational training in tourism to infrastructure development in remote parts of the country. Following expiry of PENT at the end of this year, government and tourism industry have agreed to continue their efforts within the "Turismo 2020" initiative.
Moreover, Portugal relies on the digital economy as a driver of tourism. Mentoring programmes, so-called accelerators, support young innovative companies in developing new products - from a guide on architecture to digital hotel reception services. The city of Lisbon has made three buildings available for start-ups in tourism, e-commerce and technology accommodating at present around 300 self-employed and 80 companies.
This far-sighted tourism policy is paying off: Unlike in Spain, Portugal experienced no slump in tourism revenues during the crisis of 2008/09. In 2014, the tourism sector directly contributed for the first time more than ten billion euros to the economy as a whole. Taking into account indirect and induced effects, for example the rise in purchasing power, the sector's contribution is even 27 billion euros, thus accounting for about ten percent of GDP.
The potential has by no means been exhausted yet. The German travel industry believes that closer cooperation with tour operators and intensified marketing abroad could provide an additional boost to the growing tourist flows.