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The Portuguese Nationwide Tourism Board, extra broadly often known as VisitPortugal, is celebrating what Luis Araújo, the group’s president, is looking the nation’s best-ever 12 months by way of tourism. Portugal’s rebounding customer arrivals come solely two years after pandemic shutdowns crippled the nation’s essential tourism trade.
American vacationers have been on the forefront of the tourism rebound. The 1.1 million U.S. guests Portugal drew in all of 2019 has already been reached in 2022.
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Now VisitPortugal is doubling down on the country’s rising reputation with U.S. vacationers, working with key journey advisors and tour operators and growing its advertising and marketing of the nation in a number of U.S. cities.
This previous week, Go to Portugal partnered with Madame Tussauds Wax Museum to unveil a life-sized statue of Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo in Instances Sq., New York. The occasion introduced maybe Portugal’s most acknowledged international determine to the eye of vacationers within the nation’s largest metropolis.
Throughout the unveiling, video and pictures of Portugal’s a number of environments, from lush forests and coastal areas to historic Lisbon, performed over each digital billboard within the well-known “Crossroads of the World.” The life-like statue is now on show on the Wax Museum.
We spoke with Araújo in regards to the unveiling, the Instances Sq. billboard takeover and VisitPortugal’s marketing campaign to additional broaden its U.S. customer base.
TP: What’s the tourism message behind the Cristiano Ronaldo statue unveiling?
LA: At present’s occasion has to do with the truth that the USA is rising tremendously [for] our nation. It is already our fourth [-largest] market and has been growing since 2016.
Simply to provide you an concept, we had double the variety of American vacationers that we had in 2017 [this year]. So the motion at this time has to do with that. We’re beginning a selected and centered marketing campaign for the USA market, making the most of Madame Tussauds museum displaying a brand new statue of Cristiano Ronaldo. As he’s Portuguese, we determined to affix forces.
TP: What has made Portugal widespread with U.S. customers?
LA: I feel it has to do with a number of issues. To start with is connectivity. We now have so many flights to Portugal from completely different firms, together with United and Delta, [flying] from foremost [cities] together with Newark, JFK, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington and Miami.
The second factor has to do with visibility. Throughout the two years of Covid, we had workshops each week with tour operators and journey brokers to particularly inform them in regards to the range of Portugal.
TP: How has this impacted the nation’s reputation with Individuals?
LA: Portugal has turn into the primary vacation spot for browsing within the searches in Google. Though it is a small nation, it has seven areas which are very completely different and we’ve been very lively in showcasing that by our campaigns.
We now have roughly minus 4 p.c of in a single day stays [this year] in contrast with 2019, however we’ve 14 p.c extra of the revenues in contrast with 2019. So it has been a really optimistic 12 months, the truth is, will probably be the very best 12 months ever.
TP: How does your group regard American vacationers?
LA: The American vacationer is an excellent one as a result of they keep longer they usually journey contained in the nation. The expertise of the American vacationer in Portugal is a really optimistic one. They love the gastronomy and the landscapes.
It is a very secure nation to journey round even in case you’re a lady touring alone. You possibly can go wherever within the nation. We regularly say we’ve an enormous goal as a tourism vacation spot which is welcoming everybody and respecting variations.
TP: As a tourism-reliant nation, how did Portugal climate the pandemic?
LA: Nicely, I feel each vacation spot had two very tough years. We just about centered on the interior markets. That was the large savior of our trade. [Tourism] represents roughly 12 p.c of Portuguese GDP and 10 p.c of the working drive. In order that’s 400,000 individuals.
We now have a inhabitants of 10 million. It is a small nation however we welcomed 27 million friends in 2019. So it is big what we did in the course of the pandemic. After all, we did not know when it could cease and once we would welcome everybody once more.
TP: What was your technique to take care of the impression of journey shutdowns and post-outbreak journey restrictions?
LA: We determined we must always concentrate on communication-building, belief and being clear with what was taking place. We wished to maintain the hyperlink with stakeholders, not solely the vacationers that wish to come to Portugal however [also] our companions within the markets in order that they perceive what are we doing that’s completely different.
TP: What did the pandemic expertise train you and the way are you making use of that data?
LA: I’d say that these two years for us have been an enormous studying curve. We couldn’t hold doing issues the identical manner, so we’re now just about centered on sustainability. Our foremost key efficiency indicators are not what number of friends we welcome. After all, we’re nonetheless centered on the revenues however most vital issue now could be the type of friends we appeal to.
That is why we’re a lot centered on literary tourism and our up to date artwork and structure. We simply launched some excursions in Portugal which you could go to the nation’s fashionable structure. I feel all of that is optimistic by way of how we carried out and we’re getting the outcomes.
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