Less touristic regions register an increase in reserves

Much has been said about the importance of domestic tourism to minimize the damage in the sector with the pandemic. And, in fact, we can consider that the Portuguese have discovered more of Portugal in recent months. Fleeing from the big centers, tourists looked for less touristic regions to enjoy their vacations and moments of rest. All to avoid the agglomeration of people.

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“What we know, from the summer point of view, is that the less touristic regions are those that have been most sought after, mainly by domestic tourism, so there has been a good response from national tourism. We still don’t have [official] data, but we have hoteliers and tourism projects that have had the best summer ever, especially in these areas,” Luis Araújo, president of the national entity responsible for tourism promotion, says in an interview with the Lusa agency.

In general, we know that this year has not been positive for the sector and, in fact, it has been complicated for several sectors. Tourism has not even come close to the numbers reached in 2019 but what we can see is a national tourist. A family tourism, which seeks longer stays, more isolated accommodations and less touristic regions. If before the big centers were the main choices, in 2020 we followed an expressive behavior change.

Still according to Araújo, “the great difficulty lies in the big cities like Lisbon and Porto, in the Algarve because of its capacity to offer – and it has also suffered a lot from the UK issue – and in Madeira and the Azores because of the connectivity issue”, which reinforces that tourists don’t want to take a plane to enjoy their vacations. There are still many challenges ahead and one of them is to regain the safety and confidence of travelers, both domestic and foreign.

The control of the pandemic, the measures being implemented both in Portugal and in the European Union, the possible vaccine, the increase in air and land traffic and, among other external factors, allow the recovery of tourism to be gradual and with restrictions.

To make Portugal a sought-after destination in all seasons, Tourism of Portugal is already promoting the country as an all year destination, hoping to have the opportunity  to attract tourists by the end of the year and beginning of the next. The promotion of less touristic and more isolated regions can be an important element to attract visitors.