The tourism authority of the Government of Portugal (Turismo de Portugal) recently concluded its three-city roadshow across Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai. The roadshow witnessed a delegation of 20 members representing DMCs, hotels, a cinema production company and Emirates airlines, led by Claudia Miguel, Trade Relations Marketing & Promotional Division, Turismo de Portugal.
According to Miguel, emerging markets such Russia, China, USA, India etc. have shown strong growth in the recent years. “2013 was the best year for tourism in Portugal. The Eurozone crisis has seen internal demand decreasing, but we are receiving more tourists from abroad, especially emerging markets. We have recorded a 30 per cent increase from the US, 30 per cent from Russia and 35 per cent from China. Even Germany, which is among our top ten countries, has recorded a 10 per cent increase. Travellers want new products and new destinations to visit, and visiting Lisbon and Porto has become fashionable,” she opined.
Speaking about India as a market for Portugal, Miguel revealed that from 2012-13, Portugal almost duplicated the number of requests for visas, seeing a 40 per cent growth from the market. “We visited India for the first time in 2012 when we conducted the roadshow in Delhi and Mumbai. Following that, we gathered feedback from the Portugal trade, and asked them what markets they were keen on returning to work with, and they voted India as one of them, with a request to visit the South of India and Mumbai,” she said.
Furthermore, following the successful shoot of a Tollywood song in Lisbon, Turismo de Portugal is now set on working further with the Indian film industry to woo more film productions to the country. Film producers Cinemate, who were part of the delegation to India, expressed their interest in co-producing Indian films and bringing Indian productions to shoot in Lisbon. “In 47 years, this was the first time an Indian production came to Lisbon. We found it a great experience and we would like to enhance that. Indian movies have been shot in so many countries across Europe. It would be a pleasure for us to work with Bollywood as well,” opined Rui Guerra, Line Producer, Cinemate.
Revealing their strategy for the Indian market, Miguel stated that the Board would continue being represented by Charson Advisory in India as they are well recognised among the Indian trade and can enhance the destination’s relations in the country. Furthermore, there are plans in place to conduct promotions and trainings for the travel trade.
The Portugal DMC Oasistravel.net, which is represented by Big Blue Marble in India, conducted a familiarisation trip for Indian agents last year that garnered great response. Speaking with the media at the roadshow, Vitor Manuel De Almeida, General Manager, Oasistravel.net revealed that, while the Indian market has not notched as much growth as the company would like, it is slowly picking up. “Tapping a market the size of India is a challenge. India is a big country with different types of expectations. 60 per cent of our business is MICE. For India it’s the beginning, so the MICE traffic is not much. We mostly see clients who have an international convention to attend in Lisbon. We hope to see the Incentives market now start to come in,” he said.
Participants at the roadshow included GeoStar Destination Management, Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon, Martinhal Beach Resort & Hotel, Sofitel Lisbon Liberdade, SANA Hotels, Penha Longa, Ritz Carlton Hotel, Vila Gale Hotels, RDMC, Oasistravel.net, Osiris Travel, Quasar, VEGA & destination management companies such as In Tours Portugal – DMC, Vinitur – DMC, Lusanova DMC, Mr. Travel Portugal – Luxury DMC and Vista DMC, Cinemate – a movie production company and Emirates Airlines.
